Beggars and Street Characters

About the Artwork

Zhou Chen from Suzhou provides rare depictions of impoverished people that once filled the city’s markets and streets. Despite Suzhou’s prosperity, its rapid growth polarized society, including the wealthy and those who had deserted their farmlands, who were without homes, unemployed, or sick. Amid these are figures who inspire fear rather than empathy. The painting may thus be informed by local practices at the end of the lunar year, in which street beggars, in exchange for food or money, would dress up like ghosts and demons to drive out evil forces.

Inscriptions

題: 周臣流氓圖. 古堇趙鶴琴 [印] 老鶴臨池; 鵝池軒; 正德丙子秋七月，閒窗無事，偶記素見市道丐者種種態度。乘筆硯之便，率爾圖寫。雖無足觀，亦可以助警勵世俗云。東邨周臣記 [印]東邨; 舜卿; 鵝場散人; 吳中東邨周君，善丹青，尤長於人物。此圖其所見盛市丐者之狀種種，各盡其態，觀者絕倒。嗟乎，今之晝夜乞哀以求富貴者，安得起周君而貌之耶。臥雲徵君出示，余漫題其後。甲子歲十月吳門黃姬水 [印] 士雅山人; 另一印不詳; 是冊凡數種。其飢寒流離疲癃殘疾之狀，種種之異。觀此而不惻然心傷者，非仁人也。計正德丙子逆瑾之流毒已數年。而[江]彬 [錢] 寧輩肆虐方熾。意分符剖竹諸君，亦鮮有能撫字其民者。然則舜卿此作，殆與鄭君流民圖同意。其有補於治道者不淺，要不可以墨戲忽之也。長洲張風翼題; 東村此筆，蓋圖寫飢寒乞丐之態，以警世俗耳。而質山 [黃姬水]欲其寫昏夜乞哀，而靈墟[張鳳翼]則擬之於安上門圖。二君之見，其各有所指哉。昔唐六如每見周筆，輒稱曰：周先生！蓋深服其神妙之不可及。若此冊者，信非他人可能而有符於六如之心伏矣。豈易得耶。若黃、張之指，則又論於畫之外，不在於形似筆墨之旨也。萬歷丁丑十二月三日茂苑文嘉

Exhibition history

Year in Review (1964). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1964-January 31, 1965). Portraiture: The Image of the Individual. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 22, 1983-January 22, 1984). Images of the Mind. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 7-August 30, 1987). 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). Human Images. Kyoto National Museum, Kyoto, Japan (organizer) (October 23-November 25, 2001). Ji Yun-Fei: Last Days of Village Wen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 12-July 31, 2016). Facing the Ancestors: Chinese Portraits and Figure Painting – Chinese Gallery Rotation 240a, 241c. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 12, 2019-February 2, 2020). 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: Zhou Chen (Chinese, c. 1450–c. 1536)
Date: 1516
Medium: Handscroll; ink and light color on paper
Dimensions: Overall: 31.9 x 244.5 cm (12 9/16 x 96 1/4 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: Painting
Department: Chinese Art
Credit line: John L. Severance Fund
Accession no.: 1964.94

Provenance

“Wo Yun 卧雲”, probably Feng Zilü 馮子履 [1539–1596] Chen Xin 陳新 [life dates unknown] Walter Hochstadter [1914–2007], New York, NY ?–1964: (N. V. Hammer, Inc., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1964–: 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.