Solitary Colors of the Autumn Woods
first half 1600s
Medium
hanging scroll; ink and color on satin
Dimensions
227 × 81.3 cm · image: 117.8 × 51.2 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Chinese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Accession Number
1972.68
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
Two gentlemen stand outside a thatched hut in a dense forest; some trees have bare branches indicating that the season is early autumn. Wang Jianzhang’s inscribed poem refers to a chapter called “Autumn Water” from Zhuangzi, a famous Daoist text written in the 3rd century BC: "Cold frost falls on the fences, / Solitary colors scatter the maples. / Reciting the chapter of “The Autumn Water,” / I cannot still the emotion in my old heart." Wang Jianzhang lived through the collapse of the Ming dynas...