Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund · The Cleveland Museum of Art
Image: public domain (CC0) · Museum record & image source ↗
China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644) · late 1530s
Old Pine Tree
- 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.)
- Country / context
- China
- Movement / tradition
- Chinese painting
- Collection
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Pathway
- Chinese painting ↗
FROM THE MUSEUM
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."
Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0A MOMENT TO LOOK
Start with what you can see: shapes, surface, colour and scale. How might the listed materials affect the way this object was made and experienced?
Looking prompt · an invitation to observe, not a historical interpretation.Follow a connection.
Explore the tradition ↗
↗Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) · late 1790s
Cherry Blossoms in the Wind
Utagawa Toyokuni
↗China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644) · after 1490
The Thousand Acres of Clouds, from Twelve Views of Tiger Hill, Suzhou
Shen Zhou
↗China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911) · 1642–1707
Reminiscences of Qinhuai River
Shitao
↗China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644) · 1548
Playing the Qin in a Secluded Valley
Wen Zhengming