The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Streams and Mountains

Streams and Mountains

1372
(Chinese, 1335–1380)
Image: 92.2 x 37.6 cm (36 5/16 x 14 13/16 in.); Overall: 228 x 54.5 cm (89 3/4 x 21 7/16 in.)
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

An attendant opens a reed gate to welcome the scholar with a walking stick approaching the rustic retreat.

Description

Like many literati of the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, Xu Ben was entangled with the perils of dynastic change as well as the ups and downs of his official career. It was mainly through the art of painting and poetry, as well as the ideal of reclusion, that he sought feelings of exhilaration and shared them with his friends.

Xu created this monumental landscape during one of his periods of reclusion. His innumerable “hemp-fiber” texture strokes create a unifying rhythm among the towering mountains with tightly knit masses of rocks. Nestled among shady trees at the base of the mountain is a rustic retreat, which a scholar approaches on foot to visit with the hermit.

Among the five inscriptions at the top of the painting is one by the artist himself. He dedicated the painting to someone named Jifu 吉夫 and recorded a poem in praise of mountains.
Green trees, yellow orioles, everywhere are mountains;
Aimlessly I return from the stream, where I watched the clouds.
Man's life does not allow unbroken ease,
But to be able to be high up in the mountain, this is leisure.
  • Jifu 吉夫 [14th century]
    Liang Qingbiao 梁清標 [1620–1691]
    C. C. Wang 王季遷 [1907–2003], New York, NY
    (Walter Hochstadter [1914–2007], New York, NY, sold to Mr. and Mrs. A. Dean Perry)
    ?-1997
    Mr. A. Dean Perry [1909-1987] and Mrs. Helen Wade Greene Perry [1911-1996], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1997-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lee, Sherman E. Chinese Landscape Painting. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1954. cat. no. 36
    Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. New York: Ronald Press, 1956. Reproduced and Mentioned: IV, 94; VII, Lists, 194
    Qin, Zuyong, and Roger Goepper. Im Schatten Des Wu-T'ung-Baumes: [Gedanken Zur Malerei Von Ch'in Tsu-Yung]. Munchen: Hirmer, 1959. Reproduced: pl. 10
    Goepper, Roger. 1000 Jahre chinesische Malerei. München: Haus der Kunst, 1959. cat. no. 40
    Lee, Sherman E. Chinese Landscape Painting. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1962. Reproduced: p. 55, no. 39
    Goepper, Roger. The Essence of Chinese Painting. London: Lund Humphries, 1963. Reproduced: pp. 74, 176, 218, pls. 51, 52
    Lee, Sherman E. A History of Far Eastern Art. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1964. Reproduced: p. 426, fig. 569
    Grigaut, Paul L. Treasures of Chinese Art. Louisville, KY: J.B. Speed Art Museum, 1965. cat. no. 25
    Cahill, James. Hills Beyond a River: Chinese Painting of the Yüan Dynasty, 1279-1368. New York: Weatherhill, 1976. Reproduced: pp. 130-131, pl. 64
    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. 115, pp. 140-141
    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, no. 199
    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: #A23-008, p. I-287
    Leong, Choon Sang. Wang Meng's Development As an Artist As Seen Through His Depiction of Scholars' Retreats. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Kansas, 1988. Reproduced: No. 87, p. vii
    Yang, Kathleen 楊凱琳, and Chi-chʻien Wang 王季遷. Through a Chinese connoisseur's eye: private notes of C.C. Wang 王季遷讀書筆記. Beijing: Zhong hua shu ju, 2010. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 310, fig 26
    Shanghai bo wu guan 上海博物館. Han mo hui cui: xi du Meiguo cang Zhongguo Wu dai Song Yuan shu hua zhen pin [翰墨薈萃: 细读美国藏中国五代宋元书画珍品 = Masterpieces of early Chinese painting and calligraphy in American collections]. Beijing: Beijing da xue chu ban she, 2012. Reproduced: cat no. 26, pp. 228-229
    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. 204-206
    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, 1960. 139
  • Masterpieces of Early Chinese Painting and Calligraphy in American Collections. Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China (organizer) (November 1, 2012-January 3, 2013).
    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).
    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).
    Treasures of Chinese Art. J. B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY (January 19-February 21, 1965).
    1000 Jahre Chinesische Malerei. Haus der Kunst, Munich, Mùnich, Germany (organizer) (October 16-December 13, 1959).
    Chinese Landscape Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5-December 26, 1954).
  • {{cite web|title=Streams and Mountains|url=false|author=Xu Ben|year=1372|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1997.96