The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Horizontally long handscroll depicting pastel green and blue mountains interspersed with trees nearly the same height with brown trunks and needle-like leaves. Loosely suggested people roam in robes at the mountain's base, including two people and two white deer, a person crossing a bridge on our left, and two people and two cranes in a clearing on our right. A red-robed person sits on a crane flying through a dip in the mountains, upper center.

Mountains of the Immortals

1300–1370

Chen Ruyan

(Chinese, c. 1331–1371)
calligrapher

Ni Zan

(Chinese, 1301–1374)
China, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)
Handscroll; ink and color on silk
Painting only: 33.4 x 97.3 cm (13 1/8 x 38 5/16 in.); height: 35 cm (13 3/4 in.)
Bequest of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1997.95
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Such blue and green landscapes often evoke nostalgia for the idealized ancient times.

Description

The landscape in deep green tones offers a view into a secluded mountain valley, populated by ancient figures surrounded by deer and cranes, all under high pine trees. A red-robed immortal in the air steers his crane toward the paradise land.

This idyllic scene was presumably created amid the tumultuous transition from the Yuan to the Ming dynasty. Chen from Suzhou supported major rebel leaders, first Zhang Shicheng (1321–1367) with his base in Suzhou and then his rival Zhu Yuanzhang in Nanjing, after the latter had established the Ming dynasty. Chen was executed in 1371.
  • Xiang Yuanbian 項元汴 [1525–1590]
    Liang Qingbiao 梁清標 [1620–1691]
    ?–1997
    Mrs. A. Dean [Helen Wade Greene] Perry [1911–1996], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1997–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Du, Mu 都穆. Yu yi bian [寓意編 = The Dwelling of Ideas; notes on painting and calligraphy]. Shanghai: Shanghai gu ji chu ban she, 1987. (Original text dated c. 1500s)
    Wang, Keyu 汪砢玉 . Shan hu wang 珊瑚網. Chengdu: Cheng du gu ji shu dian, 1985. (Preface dated 1643) ch. 23, p. 1336
    Wu, Qizhen 吴其貞. Shu hua ji = 書畫記. Shanghai: Shanghai ren min mei shu chu ban she, 1962. (Original text dated c. 1677) Mentioned: ch. 1, pp. 71-72
    Bian, Yongyu 卞永譽. Shi gu tang shu hua hui kao: [shu kao 30 juan, hua kao 30 juan] = 式古堂書畫彙考: [書考30卷, 畫考30卷]. Shanghai: Jian gu shu she 鑑古書社, 1921. (Facsimile reproduction of the original Kangxi edition, dated 1682.) Mentioned: ch. 2, p. 94
    Gu, Fu 顧復. Ping sheng zhuang guan 平生壯觀. Shanghai: Shanghai ren min mei shu chu ban she, 1962. (Preface dated 1692) ch. 9, p. 117
    Du, Mu 都穆. Tie wang shan hu [鐵網珊瑚 = Corals in an Iron Net]. Taibei Shi: Guo li zhong yang tu shu guan, 1970. (Preface dated 1758.) Mentioned: ch. 5, p. 10 (a)
    Li, Tiaoyuan 李調元. Zhu jia cang shu bu: 10 juan [諸家藏書簿: 10卷]. Taibei: Yi wen yin shu guan, 1965. (Preface dated 1778). ch. 8, p. 12
    Ferguson, John C 福開森. Li dai zhu lu hua mu 歷代著錄畵目. Nanjing: Chin-ling University, Zhong guo wen hua yan jiu suo 金陵大學中國文化硏究所, 1933. III, 296(b)
    Lee, Sherman E., and Wai-kam Ho. Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yüan Dynasty, 1279-1368. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art; [distributed by the Press of Case Western Reserve University], 1968. cat. no. 264
    Vinograd, Richard. “Some Landscapes Related to the Blue-and-Green Manner from the Early Yüan Period.” Artibus Asiae, vol. 41, no. 2/3, 1979, pp. 101–131. Reproduced: fig. 18 www.jstor.org
    Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman, and Marc F. Wilson. Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1980. Reproduced: cat. no. 114, pp. 139–140
    Lee, Sherman E., and Wai-kam Ho. The Nature and Significance of the Collection of Liang Ch'ing-Piao. Taipei, Taiwan: Chung-hua ming-kuo, 1981. Mentioned: p. 139, cat. no. 98
    Suzuki, Kei 鈴木敬. Chūgoku kaiga sōgō zuroku [中國繪畫總合圖錄 = Comprehensive Illustrated Catalog of Chinese Paintings], 第 1卷. アメリカ·カナダ篇 [= vol. 1 American and Canadian collections]. Tōkyō: Tōkyō Daigaku Shuppankai, 1982. Reproduced: #A23-015, p. I-287
    Neils, Jenifer. “The Twain Shall Meet.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 72, no. 6, 1985, pp. 326–359. Mentioned: no. 24, p. 357 www.jstor.org
    Little, Stephen. Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China : the Cleveland Museum of Art, February 10-April 10, 1988. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1988. Reproduced: cat. no. 5, pp. 31-32
    Wilson, J. Keith. "The Fine Art of Drinking: The Chinese Silversmith Zhu Bishan and His Sculptural Cups." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 10 (1994): 380-401. Reproduced: p. 393; Mentioned: p. 392, 401 www.jstor.org
    Barnhart, Richard M., Xin Yang, Chongzheng Nie, James Cahill, Shaojun Lang, and Hung Wu. Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting. New Haven: Yale University Press; Beijing: Foreign Languages Press,1997. Reproduced: p. 185, cat. no. 170
    Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華 : 特别展 : クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから = Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998. Reproduced: pp. 54-55, cat. no. 31
    Laing, Ellen Johnston. "Daoist Qi, Clouds and Mist in Later Chinese Painting." Orientations, vol. 29, no.4 (April 1998): pp. 32–39. Reproduced; p. 38, fig. 11
    Hasebe, Gakuji 長谷部楽爾, et al. Sōji: shinpin to yobareta yakimono [宋磁 : 神品とよばれたやきもの = Song ceramics]. Japan: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1999. Reproduced: p. 48, cat. no. 11
    Little, Stephen and Shawn Eichman. Taoism and the Arts of China. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2000. Reproduced: pp. 368-369, fig. 144
    Scott, Susan Clare. "Sacred Earth: Daoism as a Preserver of Environment in Chinese Landscape Painting From the Song Through the Qing Dynasties". East-West Connections: Review of Asian Studies (6), no. 1, 2006. Reproduced: p. 83, fig. 3
    Laozi 老子 and James Legge, translator. Tao Te Ching 道德经. New York: Metro Books, 2008. Reproduced: Fig. 82
    Mai, Shuwei 麥書瑋. "陳汝言«仙山圖» 之探討" [Discussion on Chen Ruyan's " Mountains of the Immortals"]. Yi yi fen zi 議藝份子, vol. 15 (September 2010), pp. 33-45. Mentioned: pp. 33-45
    Watt, James C. Y., Maxwell K. Hearn, and others. The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010. Reproduced: fig. 181, pp. 154-155
    Walker, Nathaniel Robert. “Reforming the Way: The Palace and the Village in Daoist Paradise.” Utopian Studies, vol. 24, no. 1, 2013, pp. 6–22. Reproduced: fig.3, p. 11 www.jstor.org
    Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. Reproduced: pp. 201–203, fig. 1
    Kim, Najung. "Beckoning the Recluse: Qian Xuan's 'Dwelling in the Floating Jade Mountains' and Song Loyalism." Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 51 (2022): 261–303, plates 256–260. Mentioned: p. 282, fig. 12; Reproduced: p. 258
    Griswold, William, Xiaofei Tian, Richard Von Glahn, Feng Zhao, S. J. Vainker, Masaaki Itakura, Jiang Wu, et al. China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. Edited by Clarissa von Spee. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 222, no. 97
    Kwok, Zoe S. "The Pan Family: Merchants and Collectors in Canton." Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 81 (2025): 82–97. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 93, fig. 9
  • China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10, 2023-January 7, 2024).
    The World of Kubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (September 20, 2010-January 2, 2011).
    Taoism and the Arts of China. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (November 11, 2000-January 7, 2001); Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (February 21-May 13, 2001).
    Highlights of Asian Paintings from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Nara National Museum (organizer) (February 21-March 29, 1998); Suntory Museum of Art (April 28-June 21, 1998).
    The Fragrance of Ink: Chinese and Japanese Paintings from the Collection of Mrs. A. Dean Perry. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (April 19-August 3, 1997).
    Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 10-April 10, 1988).
    The Twain Shall Meet. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 30, 1985-January 5, 1986).
    Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).
    Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 10-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982).
    Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yüan Dynasty, 1279-1368. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 1-November 24, 1968).
  • {{cite web|title=Mountains of the Immortals|url=false|author=Chen Ruyan, Ni Zan|year=1300–1370|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1997.95