The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 6, 2023

Conversation in Autumn

講秋圖

1732

Hua Yan 華喦

(Chinese, 1682–c. 1765)

China, Qing dynasty

(1644-1911)

Hanging scroll, ink and light color on paper

Overall: 218.5 x 71.7 cm (86 x 28 1/4 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1954.263

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

A barren tree on the lower left has a hole in its lower trunk through which is visible a young servant carrying food to the gentlemen in the cottage.

Description

Two figures sit conversing in a thatched cottage. This painting illustrates two poetic lines:

My guest came to sit beyond the dust,
In a narrow room, we talked about the autumnal sounds of autumn.

Hua Yan presented an intimate world—simple and rustic—amid a landscape. The cool wilderness depicted in this work conveys an aloofness that may reveal the inner world of a scholar-artist who failed the civil service examination but preserved a sense of pride and endurance in his humble surroundings.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Artist's inscription, signature, and 2 seals: On a winter day in the renzi year [1732], while leisurely sitting in my mountain pavilion, I happened to have imitated the brush style of Yuan masters on the two verses: "A guest came from the dusty world for a visit; in the small cottage we talked about the sound of autumn." Xin luo shan ren 新羅山人 [seals] Hua Yan 華喦; Qiuyue 秋岳.

Inscription Remark

"The Sound of Autumn" is the title of a famous rhymed prose by the great Song scholar, Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072).

Inscription

1 colophon and 2 seals of Zhang Tingji 張廷濟 (1768–1848): Old Hua [Yan], in this painting, was able to evoke the mood of desolation in nature and match the poetry elegantly. If Fangweng [Lu You 陸游 (1125–1210)] saw this, he would inscribe the painting with two words "idyllic world 詩境."

Inscription

新羅山人為吾鄉老輩，擅長寫生。羅致羽族，翫其飛鳴飲啄。故所作別有生趣。山水不多。作客冬在西泠，見所白雲松舎圖。空靈曠逸，得未曾有，至今憶之。兹幅以蒼秀勝，荒寒之中，復饒逸趣。如坐我鵠灣、龍瀃間矣。

Inscription Translation

1 colophon, dated 1825, and 2 seals of Chen Wenshu 陳文述 (1771–1842): Xinluo the Mountain Man was of an older generation in my native place. He is skilled in drawing from life, having encompassed all the feathered creatures and studied their [habits] in flight, calling, drinking and pecking. Consequently, his paintings in this genre are noted for lively exuberance. His landscapes are rarer. When I was a winter visitor in Xileng, I chanced to see his White Clouds over Pine Lodge. In its emptiness, its spiritual essence, its vastness and its untrammeled flavor, it is without peer. Even today, I could remember it distinctly. The painting here is known for its aged elegance. In the chilling wilderness, it is fraught with an untrammeled spirit. [With these two paintings,] it is as if I were sitting between the Snowgoose Bay and the Dragon Pool. My good nephew P'iao-sheng obtained the painting from Yufeng and showed it to me. So I write a few lines here to commemorate this "ink-relationship." In the yiyou year of Daoguang [1825], at the end of the autumn, the lay-Buddhist Yi dao ju shi, Wenshu wrote this at the cottage of Xiang shan hua yin (Meditation in Fragrance and Reclusion among Flowers).

Inscription Remark

The catalogue Silent Poetry only gives a transcription of the first part of the inscription.

Inscription

1 colophon and 1 seal of Zhu Angzhi 朱昂之 (1764–1841): The highest achievement in the art of painting is to penetrate deeply into the chamber of old masters, but at the same time transcend the bounds of conventional rules. This painting of Xinluo is derived from [the style of] Baishi (Shen Zhou 沈周, 1427–1509) and Baoshan (Lu Zhi 陸治, 1496–1576) with splashed-ink technique of Wang Qia 王洽 (Wang Mo 王默, ?–805), in addition to his own innovative ideas. Hence the distinctive style. Truly, he is one of those who passed through the net of the Six Canons [of Xie He 謝赫, 479–502]; treasure it.

Inscription

2 seals of Ye Tingguan 葉廷琯 (b. 1791); 1 seal unidentified.

Provenance
Ye Tingguan 葉廷琯 [b. 1791]
Sun Zutong 孫祖同 [1894–1937]
Yu Zituo 虞子垞 [early 20th century]
?-1954
(Walter Hochstadter [1914–2007], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1954-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Deng, Qiumei 鄧秋枚. Shen zhou da guan 神州大觀. Shanghai: Shen zhou guo guang she, 1912. Reproduced: pl. (18)
Kawai, Senro 河井荃廬, editor. Shina nanga taisei 支那南畫大成. Tōkyō: Kōbunsha, 1935. Mentioned and Reproduced: X, pl. 137
Pan, Zunqi 潘遵祈. Xu jing zhai suo cang ming hua ji 虛靜齋所藏名畫集. Shanghai: Shang wu yin shu guan, Minguo 24 [1935]. Reproduced: pl. 12
Sirén, Osvald. A History of Later Chinese Painting. London: The Medici Society, 1938. Mentioned: II, Lists, 253
Ōmura, Seigai 大村西崖 and Ōmura Kidō 大村文夫. Chūgoku meigashū. 8 [中国名画集. 第8冊 = Collection of famous Chinese paintings]. Tōkyō: Ryūbunshokyoku, 1945. VIII, pl. 13
Lee, Sherman E. Chinese Landscape Painting. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1954. Mentioned: p. 157, cat. no. 110; Reproduced: p. 134 archive.org
Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. New York: Ronald Press, 1956. Mentioned: VII, Lists, 343
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 880 archive.org
Lee, Sherman E. Chinese Landscape Painting. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1962. Mentioned: p. 126, no. 101
Masters of Landscape: East and West. Utica, NY: Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, 1963. Mentioned: cat. no. 16
Lee, Sherman E. A History of Far Eastern Art. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1964. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 455, fig. 601
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 269 archive.org
Cahill, James, and Virginia Field. Fantastics and Eccentrics in Chinese Painting. [New York]: Asia Society; distributed by Abrams, 1967. cat. no. 33
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 269 archive.org
Cahill, James. "Chūgoku kaiga niokeru kisō to gensō" [Fantastics and eccentrics in Chinese painting] (part II). Kokka (1975): no. 979, pp. 2-21.
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 358 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. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 265, p. 361
Barnhart, Richard M. The Jade studio: masterpieces of Ming and Qing painting and calligraphy from the Wong Nan-pʻing collection. New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery, 1994. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 61, p. 195
Honour, Hugh, and John Fleming. A World History of Art, 5th Edition. London: Laurence King, 1999. Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 16.5, p. 696
Honour, Hugh, and John Fleming. A World History of Art, 7th Edition. London: Laurence King, 2005. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 690, fig. 16.5
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. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 440-446
Exhibition history

Chinese Landscape Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5-December 26, 1954).

Masters of Landscape. Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY (September 15-October 13, 1963); The Rochester Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY (November 1-December 1, 1963).

Fantastics and Eccentrics. Asia House Gallery, New York, NY, (March 23-May 28, 1967); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA (June 20-August 13, 1967); and M. H. De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA (September 15-November 5, 1967).

Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 119). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 29, 2003-March 15, 2004).

Master of Landscape: East and West. Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY (organizer) (September 15-October 13, 1963); Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY (November 1-December 1, 1963).

Fantastics and Eccentrics in Chinese Painting. The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (March 23-May 28, 1967); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (June 20-August 13, 1967); Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA (September 15-November 5, 1967).

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); The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (December 3, 1982-February 28, 1983).

Mountains, Rocks, and Water: Landscape Painting in Asia. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 2-December 13, 1987).

Ji Yunfei: Last Days of Village Wen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 12-July 31, 2016).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1954.263