Collection Online as of March 25, 2023

One Hundred Children at Play

1100s–1200s

tradition of Su Hanchen 蘇漢臣

(Chinese, active c. 1101–1125)

tradition of Wang Juzhen

(Chinese)

China, Southern Song dynasty

(1127-1279)

Album leaf; ink and color on silk

Image: 28.7 x 31.2 cm (11 5/16 x 12 5/16 in.); with mat: 33.3 x 40.5 cm (13 1/8 x 15 15/16 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1961.261

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Following a baby’s birth, ceremonies and festivities traditionally marked the baby’s successive attainment of thirty days, one hundred days, and one year in age. “One hundred children” paintings such as this album leaf would have been suitable for presentation on either of the latter occasions.

Description

Paintings on the “one hundred children” theme usually have numerous, if not exactly 100, children. A majority of the children here imitate the dress, manners, and activities of the adult world. Whatever the exact significance of the subject, the painter of this album leaf clearly intended it to be savored figure by figure. With seemingly inexhaustible invention, the artist characterized each performer in the colorful pageant with unique accoutrements and action. The avoidance of overlapping allows each figure to be seen in clear detail, while all the figures are organized into a coherent composition. Garden settings with decorative rocks, blossoming shrubs, graceful willows, and lotus ponds had become fairly standard environments for late twelfth- to thirteenth-century scenes of palace ladies as well as of playing children.

Inscriptions

Inscription

1 seal unidentified.

Provenance

?–1961

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

1961–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Cahill, James. The Art of Southern Sung China. New York: Asia House, 1962. cat. no. 11

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, cover, cat. no. 8 www.jstor.org

National Gallery of Canada, and Expo (International Exhibitions Bureau). Terre Des Hommes: Exposition Internationale Des Beaux-Arts, 28 Avril-27 Octobre 1967 [= Man and His World, International Fine Arts Exhibition, Expo 67, Montreal, Canada, 28 April-27 October 1967]. Montréal: Expo 67, 1967. cat no. 49

Wang, Chi-chʻien. Album Leaves from the Sung and Yuan Dynasties: [Exhibition], March 26 Through May 30, 1970. New York: The [China House] Gallery, 1970. cat. no. 30

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. 39, pp. 55-56

Williams, Marjorie. Chinese Painting--an Escape from the "Dusty" World. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981. Reproduced: fig. 44, p. 63

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. Mentioned: p. 47, cat. no. 23

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: p. 317, fig. 16a

Silbergeld, Jerome, and Dora C. Y. Ching. The Family Model in Chinese Art and Culture. Princeton, NJ: P.Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Center for East Asian Art, 2013. Reproduced: fig. 8, p. 315

Fortenberry, Diane, ed. The Art Museum. London; New York: Phaidon Press, 2017. Reproduced: P. 83, no. 1

Exhibition history

The Art of Southern Sung China. Asia House Gallery, New York, NY (1962).

Man and His World [= Terre Des Hommes]. International Fine Arts Exhibition, EXPO, Montreal, Canada (April 28-October 27, 1967).

Album leaves from the Sung and Yuan dynasties. China House Gallery, New York, NY (March 26-May 30, 1970).

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

The Art of Southern Sung China. The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (February 15-April 15, 1962).

Year in Review - 1962. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 24-November 25, 1962).

Man and His World. Expo 67, Montreal, Canada (organizer) (April 27-October 28, 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).

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 through the Magnifying Glass: Masterpieces in Miniature and Detail. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 11, 2022-February 26, 2023).