Cloudy Mountains

Also known as: Cloudy Mountains

About the Artwork

Cloudy Mountains captures the view of a lush and misty riverscape, an impression of Mi Youren’s new environment, painted in a moment of peace. With the fall of the Northern Song dynasty in 1127 upon the Jurchen’s military invasion, Mi Youren fled south across the Yangzi River. In 1130, he had reached Xinchang in Zhejiang province and thanked his host with this painting for having given him shelter. Mi Youren was the oldest son of the art critic Mi Fu (1051– 1107); both developed a distinct style of mountain scenery by accumulating wet ink dots that create a hazy atmosphere.

Inscriptions

好山無數接天涯，烟靄陰晴日夕佳。要識先生會到此，故留筆戲在君家。庚戍歲，辟地新昌作。元暉。 [seal] 元暉戲作; [Seal] 安陽孫氏; [Seal] 畢瀧; [Seal] 成親王; [Seal] 永瑆; [Seal] 錫三 appears twice; [Seal] 養性齋珍藏書畫印; [Seal] 芷陔審定真跡; [Seal] 玉簡齋; 2 colophons (1 dated 1650), inscription dated 1647, and 2 seals of Wang To (1592–1652); 1 colophon, dated second month of the gengyin year 庚寅 (1650), and 2 seals of Chen Kuang 陳爌 (1646 jinshi degree); 7 seals unidentified; A separate scroll containing six colophons on Cloudy Mountains exists; the inscribers are Luo Zhenyu 羅振玉 (1866–1940), Naito Torajiro 內藤虎次郎 (1866–1934), Nagao Ko 長尾甲 (1864–1942), and Wu Changshuo 吳昌碩 (1844–1927). Naito Torajiro alone wrote three colophons.

Exhibition history

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936). The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941). Exhibition of the Month: The Romantic Spirit. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 29-May 5, 1952). Chinese Landscape Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5-December 26, 1954). Chinese Paintings: Themes and Techniques. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 7-April 5, 1981). Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 11-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982). Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982). Asian Autumn: Masterpieces from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 17, 1991-January 5, 1992). Highlights of Asian Paintings from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Nara National Museum (organizer) (February 21-March 29, 1998); Suntory Museum of Art (April 28-June 21, 1998). The Chinese Painter as Poet. China Institute in America, New York, NY (organizer) (September 14-December 17, 2000). Admired from Afar: Masterworks of Japanese Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (January 15-February 23, 2014); Kyushu National Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (July 8-August 31, 2014). Inspired by Chinese Landscape and Art – Chinese Gallery Rotation 240a, 241c. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 14, 2017-February 5, 2018). China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10, 2023-January 7, 2024).

Quick Overview

Artist: Mi Youren (Chinese, 1072–1151)
Date: 1130
Medium: Handscroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions: Image: 43.7 x 192.6 cm (17 3/16 x 75 13/16 in.); Overall: 45.5 x 646.8 cm (17 15/16 x 254 5/8 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: Painting
Department: Chinese Art
Credit line: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Accession no.: 1933.220

Provenance

Zigu 子榖 [mid-1600s] Xisan 錫三 of Yang xing zhai 養性齋 [likely 1800s] Li Zaixian 李在銛 [early 1900s] Luo Zhenyu 羅振玉 [1866–1940] Yamamoto Teijiro 山本悌二郞 [1870–1937], Tokyo, Japan ?–1933: (Yamanaka and Company, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1933–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.