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Apr 7, 2010

Nine Songs

九歌圖

1361

Zhang Wo 張渥

(Chinese, active c.1336–after 1364)

and Chu Huan 褚奐

(Chinese, active 1361)

China, Yuan dynasty

(1271-1368)

Handscroll, ink on paper

Overall: 28 x 438.2 cm (11 x 172 1/2 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1959.138

Location

not on view

Description

Painted in the baimiao, or fine-line drawing style, this ancient work demonstrates the literati’s use of abstract calligraphic brushwork for self-expression. The subject of the “Nine Songs”—songs associated with shamanistic rituals in the ancient Chu kingdom—had traditionally provided artists with myths and legends that they could explore and reinterpret in their own works.

Inscriptions

Inscription

7 colophons and 47 seals: 1 colophon, dated 1361, and 28 seals of Chu Huan 褚奐 (active c. 1361); 1 colophon, dated 1785, and 1 seal of Lu Shihua 陸時化 (1714-1779); 2 seals of Lu Yü-ch'ing (18th c.); 1 colophon, dated 1935, of Ye Gongchuo 葉恭綽 (1881-1968); 1 colophon, dated 1935, of Wu Hufan 吳湖帆(1894–1968); 1 colophon, dated 1938, and 1 seal of Wang Tongyu 王同愈 (1856-1941); 1 colophon, dated 1941, of Wu Huayuan 吳華源 (1893-1972); 1 colophon, dated 1942, and 9 seals of Xu Bangda 徐邦達 (1911–2012); 1 colophon, dated 1942, of Lang Jingshan 郎靜山 (1892-1995); 1 colophon, dated 1944, of Tang Yun 唐雲 (1910-1993); 6 seals of Wang Jiqian [C.C. Wang] 王季遷 (1907–2003).

Inscription

Text of The Nine Songs written by Chu Huan at the end of each section.

Inscription

右離騷九歌圖，宋龍溟居士李公本，淮南張渥叔厚所畫妙絕當世。家藏請予書其辭目識于左。至正二十一年辛醜三月旦河南褚奐記。

Inscription Translation

Colophon and 3 seals by Chu Huan 褚奐: In the foregoing is The Nine Songs from Li-sao based on the original of Long ming ju shi [Li Gonglin] and painted by Zhang Wo, t. Shuhou of Huainan. The painting is a wonder unsurpassed in our time. It has been in the family collection of ... who has asked me to write the text. I therefore recorded this as above. Noted by Chu Huan of Henan on the first day of the third month of the xin chou year, the twenty-first year of the Zhizheng era [1361]. [3 seals] Chu Huan; Shi wen fu yin; Shi xue zhai.

Inscription

Colophon by Lu Shihua 陸時化 (1714–1789): This scroll is fortunate to have been handed down from collections of the right people. Now, after 500 years, its condition is as good as when it was painted. I acquired this from Mr. Shen Guiyu [1673-1769], the President of the Board of Rites. The label is in his handwriting when he was 95 years old. I submit that Chu Huan (t. Shiwen) of the Yuan Dynasty was a native of Qiantang. His "seal" and li writings are in the style of Wu Rui. For example, in [Chu Kuei's] Ming ji lu [A list of masterpieces] is recorded the stele commemorating the restoration of the prefectural school of Kun-shan, the text of which was composed by Yang Weizhen in the twenty-first year of Zhizheng [1361]; and the calligraphy as well as the title in li style was by Chu Huan, who was at that time an assistant judge of the prefecture of Haining in the circuit of Hangzhou. Zhang Wo's zi is Shuhou (叔厚). His literary name is Zhen Qisheng (贞期生). According to [Gu Ying's] Yu shan cao tang ya jii, he liked to paint in the bai-miao or the "pure delineation" style after the method of Li Longmian [Li Gonglin 李公麟], which finds no peer among the ancient masters. This is agreed upon [by Pei Ch'iung] in his Qing jiang zhi who praised [Zhang Wo] as being quite learned and well-versed in many branches of the arts, especially figure painting. Recorded by Lu Shihua [The mountain dweller], listening to the pine, in the twelfth month of the yisi year [1785].

Provenance

Shen Deqian 沈德潛 [1673–1769]

Lu Shihua 陸時化 [1714–1789]

Lin of Ningbo 四明林氏 [early 20th century]

Xu Maoxun 徐懋勳 [late 19th–20th century]

Xu Bangda 徐邦達 [1911–2012]

?-1959

(C. C. Wang 王季遷 [1907–2003], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1959-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Lu, Shihua 陸時化. Wu Yue suo jian shu hua lu: 6 juan 吳越所見書畫錄 : 六卷. Shunde: Teng shi, 1910. ch. 3, pp. 6(a)-6(b).

Jiao yu bu di er ci quan guo mei shu zhan lan hui zhuan ji [敎育部第二次全國美術展覽會專集 = A special collection of the second National Exhibition of Chinese Art under the auspices of the Ministry of Education]. [Nanjing?]: Shang wu yin shu guan, 1937. Vol. 1, cat. no. 75

Dubosc, Jean Pierre, and Alberto Giuganino. Mostra D'arte Cinese: Catalogo = Exhibition of Chinese Art: Catalogue. Venezia: Alfieri Editore, 1954. cat. no. 785

Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. New York: Ronald Press, 1956. Mentioned and Reproduced: IV, 36; VI, pls. 44, 45; VII, Lists, 100

Chen, Rentao 陳仁濤 [J.D. Chen]. Gu gong yi yi shu hua mu jiao zhu 故宮已佚書畫目校注. Hong Kong: Dongnan shu ju, 1956. p. 14(b)

Goepper, Roger. 1000 Jahre chinesische Malerei. München: Haus der Kunst, 1959. cat. no. 36

Goepper, Roger. The Essence of Chinese Painting. London: Lund Humphries, 1963. Reproduced: pp. 60, 61, 100, 101, pls. 10, 11

Zheng, Zhenduo 郑振鐸. Zhongguo gu dai hui hua xuan ji [中國古代繪畫選集]. Beijing: Ren min mei shu chu ban she, 1963. Reproduced: pl. 63

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 261 archive.org

Lee, Sherman E., and Wai-kam Ho. Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yüan Dynasty, 1279-1368. [Cleveland, OH]: The Cleveland Museum of Art; [distributed by the Press of Case Western Reserve University], 1968. cat. no. 187

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 261 archive.org

Barnhart, Richard M. Survivals, Revivals, and the Classical Tradition of Chinese Figure Painting 中國傳統人物畫的遺風與復興之研究. [Taipei]: [National Palace Museum], 1970. Reproduced: p. 174, fig. 21

Toynbee, Arnold, and Elsé Glahn. Half the World: The History and Culture of China and Japan. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973. Reproduced: p. 155

Lee, Sherman Emery, and James Robinson. The Colors of Ink: Chinese Paintings and Related Ceramics from the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York: Asia Society; distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1974. cat. no. 15

Kawakami, Kei 川上涇, Teisuke Toda 戶田禎佑, and Toshio Ebine 海老根聰郎. Ryō Kai, Indara [粱楷・因陀羅 = Liang Kai, Yintuoluo]. Tōkyō: Kōdansha, Shōwa 50 [1975]. figs. 4-7, supp. pl. 25

Cahill, James. Hills Beyond a River: Chinese Painting of the Yüan Dynasty, 1279-1368. New York: Weatherhill, 1976. Reproduced: pp. 153, 154, pl. 70

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 346 archive.org

Oertling, Sewall Jerome. Ting Yün-Pʼeng: A Chinese Artist in the Late Ming Dynasty. PhD dissertation. University of Michigan, 1980. pp. 170, 180

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. 96, pp. 119-122

Williams, Marjorie. Chinese Painting--an Escape from the "Dusty" World. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981. Reproduced: p. 14, fig. 3

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: p. 3, fig. 3

Sugimura, Tō 杉村棟. Isurāmu イスラーム. Tōkyō: Shōgakukan, 1999. Reproduced: p. 128, no. 106

Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Reproduced: pp. 76-77

Murray, Julia K. Mirror of Morality: Chinese Narrative Illustration and Confucian Ideology. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007. Reproduced: p. 69, fig. 44

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. Reproduced: p. 309, fig. 22

Chung, Anita, Julia Frances Andrews, Kuiyi Shen, Tamaki Maeda, and Aida Yuen Wong. Chinese art in an age of revolution: Fu Baoshi (1904-1965). Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2011. Reproduced: p. 90, fig. 39

Tan, Yvonne. "Masterpieces of Song and Yuan Paintings from American Collections." The Asian Art Newspaper: Monthly for Collectors, Dealers, Museums and Galleries (Nov 2012): 12–13. Reproduced: p. 12

Chung, Anita. "Collaboration and Commemoration: Cleveland's Masterpieces at the Shanghai Museum." Orientations 43:8 (Nov/Dec 2012): 90–95. Reproduced: p. 94-95, fig 5

Shanghai bo wu guan. 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. 44, pp. 397-379

Zhang, Hongxing, Lizhong Ling, Masaaki Itakura, Charles Mason, Shane McCausland, Camille Schmitt, Clarissa von Spee, and Roderick Whitfield. Masterpieces of Chinese Painting, 700-1900. London: V & A Publishing, 2013. Reproduced: pp. 104-105, fig. 48

Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. Reproduced: pp. 157-163

Lu, Elisabeth A. Jung. Ru jia jing shen yu Nan chao feng liu de jiao hui: Bei Qi shi ke shu fa chuan tong de yuan liu he chuan bo [儒家精神與南朝風流的交會 : 北齊石刻書法傳統的源流和傳播 (550-577) = When Confucian spirit meets Southern elegance: the origins and transmission of calligraphic traditions carved in stone during the Northern Qi dynasty (550-577)]. Hangzhou Shi: Zhejiang ren min mei shu chu ban she, 2018. Reproduced: Vol. II, pp. 360–361, fig. 2.32

Exhibition history

Chiao-yü-pu. [Jiao yu bu di er ci quan guo mei shu zhan lan hui zhuan ji = 敎育部第二次全國美術展覽會專集 = A special collection of the second National Exhibition of Chinese Art under the auspices of the Ministry of Education]. Nanking Art Gallery, Nanjing, China (April 1-23, 1937).

Mostra D'arte Cinese. Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Italy (1954).

Chinese Paintings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1960).

Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yüan Dynasty, 1279-1368. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 1-November 24, 1968)

Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 10-April 10, 1988).

Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 122). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 27, 2003-March 10, 2004).

1000 Jahre Chinesische Malerei. Haus der Kunst, Munich, Mùnich, Germany (organizer) (October 16-December 13, 1959).

The Colors of Ink. Asia House Galleries (January 10-March 3, 1974); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 9-May 12, 1974).

Chinese Paintings: Themes and Techniques. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 7-April 5, 1981).

Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 11-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982).

Asian Autumn: Masterpieces from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 17, 1991-January 5, 1992).

The Art of Fu Baoshi (1904 - 1965). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 16, 2011-January 8, 2012).

Masterpieces of Early Chinese Painting and Calligraphy in American Collections. Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China (organizer) (November 1, 2012-January 3, 2013).

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{{cite web|title=Nine Songs|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1959.138|author=Zhang Wo|year=1361|access-date=06 June 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Nine Songs

Nine Songs

九歌圖

Zhang Wo 張渥

and Chu Huan 褚奐

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