{
"data": {
"id": 159727,
"accession_number": "1997.102",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Old Trees by a Wintry Brook (\u53e4\u6728\u5bd2\u6cc9\u5716), 1551. Wen Zhengming (Chinese, 1470\u20131559). Hanging scroll, ink and light color on paper; image: 114.3 x 47 cm (45 x 18 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Mrs. A. Dean Perry, 1997.102",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Old Trees by a Wintry Brook",
"title_in_original_language": "\u53e4\u6728\u5bd2\u6cc9\u5716",
"creation_date": "1551",
"creation_date_earliest": 1551,
"creation_date_latest": 1551,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"China, Ming dynasty (1368\u20131644)"
],
"technique": "hanging scroll, ink and light color on paper",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Chinese Art",
"collection": "ASIAN - Hanging scroll",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Image: 114.3 x 47 cm (45 x 18 1/2 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 1.143,
"height_inch": 45,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.47,
"width_inch": 18,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.5
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "\u8f9b\u4ea5\u4e94\u6708\u671b\u5fb5\u660e\u6232\u5beb\u53e4\u6728\u5bd2\u6cc9 \u6642\u5e74\u516b\u5341\u4e8c [\u5370] \u5fb5\u660e; \u505c\u96f2",
"inscription_translation": "Artist's inscription, signature, and 2 seals: \n\nIn the fifteenth day of the fifth month, the year of xinhai [1551], [I], Zhengming, playfully sketched this Old Trees by a Wintry Brook at eighty-two [sui]. [seals] Zhengming; Tingyun.",
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "2 additional seals of Mou Yueqi \u7e46\u66f0\u8291 (18th century).",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 286274,
"title": "Chinese Gallery 240a Rotation \u2013 August 2016",
"description": "Chinese Gallery 240a Rotation \u2013 August 2016. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 1, 2016-February 6, 2017).",
"opening_date": "2016-08-01T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Masterpieces of Asian art in American collections II; an offering of treasures celebrating the tenth anniversary of Asia House Gallery. Asia House Gallery, New York, NY (Spring 1970).",
"opening_date": "1970-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "",
"opening_date": null
},
{
"description": "The Art of Wen Cheng-ming. University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI (January 25-February 29, 1976); Asia House Gallery, New York, NY (April 7-June 7, 1976)",
"opening_date": "1976-01-25T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "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).",
"opening_date": "1981-02-10T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).",
"opening_date": "1982-02-17T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "The Fragrance of Ink: Chinese and Japanese Paintings from the Collection of Mrs. A. Dean Perry. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (April 19-August 3, 1997).",
"opening_date": "1997-04-19T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Mou Yueqi \u7e46\u66f0\u8291 [18th century]",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "Hiyoshi collection, Japan",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "(Jean-Pierre Dubosc [1904\u20131988], Paris, France, sold to Mr. and Mrs. A. Dean Perry)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "A. [Albert] Dean Perry [1909-1987] and Helen Wade Greene Perry [1911-1996], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-1997",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1997-",
"sortorder": 5
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [
"125.81",
"1.82"
],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Wen Zhengming was one of the most celebrated calligraphers and painters during the Ming dynasty (1368\u20131644). His inscription, gracefully written in small characters on the upper left corner, reveals Wen\u2019s emotional mood at that moment of creation.
\"In the fifteenth day of the fifth month, the year of xinhai [1551], [I], Zhengming, playfully write this Old Trees by a Wintry Brook at eighty-two [sui].\"
How should we understand a wintery landscape painted in the middle of spring? Was it simply inspired by a surprisingly late spring snow? Or can it be that the \u201cwintery\u201d brook reflects the octogenarian\u2019s feelings about aging and his inevitable, approaching mortality? The junipers\u2019 gnarled forms are a poignant symbol of aging and suffering, yet the ink-dot leaves on some branches suggest that the trees are still alive, awaiting the warmth of spring.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60477382"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1997.102-old-trees-by-a-wintr"
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},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Naito\u0304, Torajiro\u0304 \u5167\u85e4\u864e\u6b21\u90ce. Min shitaika gafu [\u660e\u56db\u5927\u5bb6\u756b\u8b5c = Paintings by the four great masters of the Ming dynasty]. Osaka: Hakubundo\u0304, 1924.",
"page_number": "p. 50",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Sire\u0301n, Osvald. A History of Later Chinese Painting. London: The Medici Society, 1938.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: I, 110, pl. 78, and Lists, 241",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Sire\u0301n, Osvald. Kinas konst under tre a\u030artusenden. Stockholm: Natur och kultur, 1942.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 525, fig. 486",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Sire\u0301n, Osvald. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. New York: Ronald Press, 1956.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: IV, 184, and VI, pl. 211-B, and VII, Lists, 260",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Masterpieces of Asian Art in American Collections II; An Offering of Treasures Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of Asia House Gallery. New York: Distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1970.",
"page_number": "cat. no. 42",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Clapp, Anne de Coursey. Wen Cheng-Ming: The Ming Artist and Antiquity. Ascona: Artibus Asiae Publishers, 1975.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: pp. 85, 86, fig. 46",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Edwards, Richard. The Art of Wen Cheng-Ming (1470-1559). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, 1976.",
"page_number": "cat. no. 50",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Hironobu Kohara \u53e4\u539f\u5b8f\u4f38. Shin Shu\u0304, Bun Cho\u0304mei [\u6c88\u5468, \u6587\u5fb4\u660e = Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming]. To\u0304kyo\u0304: Chu\u0304o\u0304 Ko\u0304ronsha, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced:pp. 151, 170, pl. 76",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Loehr, Max. The Great Painters of China. Oxford: Phaidon, 1980.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 281, fig. 150",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "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.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: cat. no. 176, p. 222",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Clunas, Craig. Pictures and Visuality in Early Modern China. London: Reaktion Books, 1997.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 145, left, no. 77",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "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.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: pp. 270-278",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "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.
",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 274",
"url": null
}
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"updated_at": "2026-05-29 08:16:56.531000"
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