The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Chinese Literatus in an Autumn Landscape

Chinese Literatus in an Autumn Landscape

late 1400s
(Japanese, active c. 1489–1500)
Mounted: 111 x 56.2 cm (43 11/16 x 22 1/8 in.)
Location: not on view

Description

In this painting, Sesshū Tōyō’s disciple Sōen depicts a Chinese scholar-official astride a donkey with his attendant behind. Framing their passage on the right side of the scene are two bare willows, and on the left, geese in flight, the cries of which capture the pair’s attention. These elements suggest that the season is late autumn. Sōen, who famously received Sesshū’s 1495 Splashed-ink Landscape as a certificate of his success as a pupil, studied with the master in Suō, presentday Yamaguchi, after which he returned to his native province in the Kanto region.
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art, "Reeds and Geese: Japanese Art from the Collection of George Gund III" (May 21- September 3 2017)
    Reeds and Geese: Japanese Art from the Collection of George Gund III. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 21-September 3, 2017).
  • {{cite web|title=Chinese Literatus in an Autumn Landscape|url=false|author=Josui Sōen|year=late 1400s|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2015.467