Gazing at a Waterfall
Medium
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions
painting: 112.5 × 51.1 cm · mounted: 214 × 54.5 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Japanese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
1972.16
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
Artist Tani Bunchō painted this image in a mountain pavilion during winter. He inscribed it with two lines of a poem: “The stone cliff of layered rocks is extremely high. Waterfalls tumbling from the skies reverberate in the clouds.” The scholarly figure and attendant carrying his qin (a stringed instrument) are set amid majestically soaring mountains in China. For many people in Japan at the time, the image would call to mind a poem about a waterfall at Mount Lu by Chinese poet Li Bai (701–762)...