Collection Online as of March 27, 2023

Album of Miscellaneous Subjects, Leaf 7

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 1975.22.7

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The cricket stands on the yellowing leaf of a ripening rice plant.

Description

Leaf 7 Han Tan's colophon reads: Thoughts of autumn in the nuptial chamber with the new chill arising, The white frost all persuasive with a bright moon shining. Outside the window, a crisp wind conveys the sound of crickets. Within this quiet dream, I seem to sense the fragrance of orchids.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Artist seal: Fan Qi 樊圻. Poem by Han Tan 韓菼 (1637–1704): Thoughts of autumn in the nuptial chamber with the new chill arising,/ The white frost all pervasive with a bright moon shining./ Outside the window, a crisp wind conveys the sound of crickets./ Within this quiet dream, I seem to sense the fragrance of orchids.

Inscription Remark

Folk superstition holds that dreaming of orchids foretells the birth of a son.

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).