Collection Online as of April 2, 2023

Album of Miscellaneous Subjects, Leaf 4

山水花鳥圖冊

early 1650s

Part of a set. See all set records

Fan Qi 樊圻

(Chinese, 1616-aft 1694)

China, Qing dynasty

(1644-1911)

Album leaf, ink and color on silk

Image: 12.6 x 17.3 cm (4 15/16 x 6 13/16 in.); Overall: 21 x 22 cm (8 1/4 x 8 11/16 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1975.22.4

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

There is no sign of human presence in this sunny landscape dominated by a bold flat-topped cliff.

Description

Leaf 4 This leaf alludes to Wang Wei's poetic lines: In empty hills, there is no one there; Yet one can hear the sound of conversation. Xu Fang's colophon reads: By chance, I start my journey from the watershed to remote regions, Suddenly I see the silhouette of mountains-myriad expanses of green. What is this Feilai Peak which now does not recede? Its rocky walls, linked to heaven, are drenched by a waterfall.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Artist seal: Fan Qi 樊圻. Poem by Xu Fang 徐枋 (1622–1694): By chance, I start my journey from the watershed to remote regions,/ Suddenly I sight the silhouette of mountains - myriad expanses of green./ What is this "Come-flying" Peak which now does not recede,/ Its rocky walls, linked to heaven, are drenched by a waterfall.

Inscription Remark

Fei-lai (Come-flying) Peak, a rocky hill at West Lake, Hangzhou, was said to have flown there from its original site, the Vulture Peak in Central India.

Provenance

Tomioka Tessai 富岡鐵齋 [1836–1924]

?-1975

(Robert G. Sawers [b. c. 1934], London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1975-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1975.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 63, no. 2, 1976, pp. 31–71. Reproduced: p. 70, cat. no. 155 www.jstor.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. 219, pp. 288-293

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. Reproduced: pp. 379-385

Exhibition history

Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 10-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982).

Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 242). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 7-July 7, 2015).

Year in Review: 1975. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 3-March 7, 1976).