Purification at the Orchid Pavilion

Also known as: Purification at the Orchid Pavilion 蘭亭修禊圖

About the Artwork

By the 1600s, the historic gathering at Lanting, Zhejiang province, in 353 CE was a common theme in Chinese painting. Originally based on a composition attributed to Li Gonglin (1049– 1106), now lost, Wu school artists revived the theme. Fan Yi, the brother of the artist Fan Qi from Nanjing, used delicate brushwork and luminous colors to depict the spring gathering.

Inscriptions

Artist's inscription, signature, and 2 seals: Painted by Fan Yi of Zhongfu during the second month of winter of the xinhai year [1671]. [2 seals] Fan Yi zhi yin, Zi yu yi.; Title on the frontispiece by Monk Yueshan (1629–1709).; 3 colophons and 13 additional seals: 1 colophon, dated 1707, and 6 seals of Yueshan; 2 colophons and 3 seals of Wong Kwan-Shut (Huang Junshi) 黃君實 (b. 1934); 2 seals of Fu Shen 傅申 (1937–2024); 2 seals of Tessai Tomioka 富岡鐵齋 (1836–1924).

Exhibition history

Year in Review: 1977. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1977-January 22, 1978). Chinese Paintings: Themes and Techniques. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 7-April 5, 1981). Greeting the Spring (Chinese art rotation, galleries 240a, 239, 241c). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 11-August 13, 2017). 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: Fan Yi (Chinese, c. 1615–before 1688)
Date: 1671
Medium: Handscroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions: Image: 28.4 x 392.8 cm (11 3/16 x 154 5/8 in.); Overall: 29.8 x 763.3 cm (11 3/4 x 300 1/2 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: Painting
Department: Chinese Art
Credit line: Gift of Mrs. Wai-kam Ho and the Womens Council of The Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession no.: 1977.47

Provenance

Tomioka Tessai 富岡鐵齋 [1837–1924], Kyoto, Japan ?–1977: Wong Kwan-Shut 黃君實 [b. 1934], Kansas City, Missouri, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art 1977–: 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.