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About the Artwork
Here the natural appearance of a gnarled and vine-entangled pine has been transformed into a rhythmic abstraction of brushstrokes and ink tonalities, with unifying opposites—opening and closing, rising and falling—that provide the design across the horizontal scroll. The artist's inscription reads: "The force of change beyond restraint; / The dragon's whiskers are likened to a forest of spears."
Inscriptions
變化勢難縛，虬髯似戟森. 徵明 [印]文徵明印; 衡山; 2 partial seals of Qian Shisheng 錢士昇 (1575–1652); 8 imperial seals: 6 of the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736–95); 1 of the Jiaqing emperor (r. 1796–1821); 1 of the Xuantong emperor (r. 1909–11).
Provenance
Qian Shisheng 錢士昇 [1575–1652] at least by 1736–c. 1911: Qing imperial collection (seals of Emperors Qianlong, r. 1736–1795; Jiaqing, r. 1796–1820; and Xuanzong, r. 1909–11) ?–1964: (Jean-Pierre Dubosc [1904–1988], Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1964–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Year in Review (1964). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1964-January 31, 1965). The Colors of Ink. Asia House Galleries (January 10-March 3, 1974); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 9-May 12, 1974). Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982). Powerful Form and Potent Symbol: The Dragon in Asia. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 24-November 25, 1990). Silent Poetry: Masterworks of Chinese Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 14, 2015-April 24, 2016).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Wen Zhengming (Chinese, 1470–1559)
- Date
- late 1530s
- Medium
- handscroll; ink on paper
- Dimensions
- Painting: 28 x 139.3 cm (11 x 54 13/16 in.); Overall: 29.3 x 596.9 cm (11 9/16 x 235 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Chinese Art
- Credit line
- Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
- Accession no.
- 1964.43
More by Wen Zhengming in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009672
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