Pure Tones among Hills and Waters

Description

Painted at age 68, this landscape is one of Xiao Yuncong’s most mature works. Extraordinary in its combination of fine details with bold brushstrokes and bluish washes, it is also one of his longest compositions in handscroll format, extending over 23 feet. Throughout his lifetime, Xiao visited Nanjing and Yangzhou, where he met with other painters and literati. Regarded as the founder of the Gushu school (姑孰派) of painting, Xiao painted from nature, and his landscapes are informed by his travels, as well as by his experience as a print designer.

Provenance

Jiang Xun 江恂 [active about 1753–after 1780]; Xiang Yuan 項源 [active about 1811]; Qi Zhiliu 祁之鏐 [active about 1858]; Yu Zhimeng 俞芷盟 [second half of 19th century]; Wu Changshou 吳昌綬 [1867–1924]; Zhang Yunzhong 張允中 [1881–1960?]; Wang Shaoming 汪兆銘 [Wang Jingwei 汪精衛, 1883–1944]; (Walter Hochstadter [1914–2007], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (?-1954); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1954-)

Pure Tones among Hills and Waters

Xiao Yuncong

1664

Accession Number

1954.262

Medium

Handscroll; ink and light color on paper

Dimensions

Painting: 31 x 781.6 cm (12 3/16 x 307 11/16 in.); Overall: 34 x 1194.8 cm (13 3/8 x 470 3/8 in.)

Classification

Painting

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

John L. Severance Fund