Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00010267Landscapes
by Ren Yu
About the Artwork
This set of four seasonal landscape hanging scrolls are by Ren Yu. He was the youngest, most eccentric, and least prolific of the Four Rens, a family of prominent painters in Shanghai during the late Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Perhaps due to his opium habit and subsequent financial difficulties, Ren Yu tended to be lackadaisical in his work. The few remaining high-quality paintings hint at his artistic potential lost to opium. Though Ren’s premature death left his artistic promise unfulfilled, his paintings were acquired and donated to the museum by Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919), a wealthy businessman and art collector from Detroit. As Freer had hoped, this donation of Ren Yu paintings inspired the young Cleveland Museum of Art to continue to expand its own Chinese painting collection.
Provenance
?–1915: Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919), Detroit, MI, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art 1915–: 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.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Ren Yu (Chinese, 1853–1901)
- Date
- 1892
- Medium
- Set of four hanging scrolls; color on paper
- Dimensions
- Overall: 149.8 x 40.7 cm (59 x 16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Chinese Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Charles L. Freer
- Accession no.
- 1915.97
More by Ren Yu in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00010267
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