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Sep 8, 2014

May 22, 2006

Sep 8, 2014

The Knickknack Peddler

嬰戲貨郎圖

1212

Li Song 李嵩

(Chinese, active c. 1190-c. 1230)

China, Southern Song dynasty

(1127-1279)

Album leaf; ink and color on silk

Image: 24.1 x 26 cm (9 1/2 x 10 1/4 in.); with mat: 33.3 x 40.5 cm (13 1/8 x 15 15/16 in.)

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1963.582

Location

003 Special Exhibition Hall

Did you know?

There is a skull, upside down, near the top of the right basket.

Description

The court artist Li Song from Hangzhou excelled in meticulous depictions of children, peddlers, and their various goods. Here, he captures a dramatic scene of children attacking a snake with a stick and stone. The peddler rushes toward the children, leaving his merchandise unattended. Painted during the reign of emperor Ningzong, the drama unfolding around vulnerable children may allude to Ningzong’s nine sons who died young, leaving him without a direct male descendant.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Artist's inscription: 嘉定壬申李嵩畫

Inscription Translation

Li Song painted this in the renshen year of the Jiading era [1212].

Inscription

1 colophon and 4 seals: 1 colophon and 3 seals of Li Zuoxian 李佐賢 [1807–1876]; 1 seal unidentified.

Provenance

Li Zuoxian 李佐賢 [1807–1876]

Gushu 固叔, likely Bao Shizhen 鮑士貞, zi Gushu [1800s]

?–1963

(N. V. Hammer, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1963–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Lee, Sherman E. and Wai-Kam Ho. "Scattered Pearls beyond the Ocean." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 51, No. 2 (Feb., 1964), pp. 23-39. Reproduced: pp. 23-39, cat. no. 3 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 259 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 259 archive.org

Wang, Chi-chʻien. Album Leaves from the Sung and Yuan Dynasties. New York: China House Gallery, the China Institute in America, 1970. cat. no. 16

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 342 archive.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. 35, p. 53

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: p. 43, cat. no. 20

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. 79–81

Exhibition history

Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 120). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 13-November 11, 2004).

Year in Review (1964). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1964-January 31, 1965).

Wang Chi-ch'ien, Album Leaves from the Sung and Yuan Dynasties. China House Gallery (organizer) (March 26-May 30, 1970).

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).

Fans: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 15, 1992-March 7, 1993).

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).

China's Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10, 2023-January 7, 2024).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=The Knickknack Peddler|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1963.582|author=Li Song|year=1212|access-date=10 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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The Knickknack Peddler

The Knickknack Peddler

嬰戲貨郎圖

Li Song 李嵩

Location

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Description

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Inscription Translation

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