Description
A cheerful gathering of poets was one the most popular themes of East Asian literati paintings. Literary Gathering in the Orchid Pavilion depicts a poets’ party hosted in AD 353 by the famous Chinese calligrapher Wang Xizhi to celebrate the Spring Purification Festival, observed annually on the third day of the third month. Wang invited 41 scholar-poets to compose poetry and drink while seated along the bank of a winding rivulet. This screen would have appeared on the left and shows preparations for the gathering. The lost right screen is assumed to have depicted the poets sitting along the stream.
Provenance
(Joe Brotherton [1918–2012], San Francisco, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (?–1977); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1977–)
Accession Number
1977.1
Medium
Six-panel folding screen; ink and slight color on paper
Dimensions
Image: 83 x 191.8 cm (32 11/16 x 75 1/2 in.); Overall: 95.7 x 204.5 cm (37 11/16 x 80 1/2 in.); Open and extended: 83 x 243 cm (32 11/16 x 95 11/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
John L. Severance Fund
