Streams and Mountains without End

Streams and Mountains without End, 1100-1150

China, late Northern Song dynasty (960-1126) - Jin dynasty (1115-1234)

handscroll, ink and slight color on silk, Image - h:35.10 w:213.00 cm (h:13 13/16 w:83 13/16 inches) Overall - h:35.10 w:1103.78 cm (h:13 13/16 w:434 1/2 inches). Gift of the Hanna Fund 1953.126

Location:

not on view

Description

Streams and Mountains without End was a landmark acquisition of 1953, made just a year after Lee had returned to Cleveland as curator of Oriental art. He acquired it with the intention to provide "a more than adequate foundation for a fine collection of Chinese landscape painting." This impressive work demonstrates the culmination of stylistic developments in Chinese monumental landscape painting following the Northern Song tradition. It represents a journey through a landscape, making it a fitting metaphor for Lee’s journey of discovery and achievement over a lifetime.

Inscription

9 colophons and 48 seals: 1 colophon, dated 1205, of Wang Wen-wei (dates unknown); 1 colophon, dated 1205, of Li Hui (dates unknown); 1 colophon of T'ien Hsieh (dates unknown); 1 colophon, dated 1214, of Ho Yen (dates unknown); 1 colophon, dated 1326, of Ts'ao Yüan-yung (dates unknown); 1 colophon, dated 1332, of K'ang-li K'uei-k'uei (Nao-nao; 1295-1345); 1 colophon, dated 1336, of Liu Tsai (dates unknown); 1 colophon, dated 1380, and 4 seals of Yang Mou (ca. 1330-after 1380); 4 seals of the Hou family (ca. 1340); 1 colophon of Wang To (1592-1652); 4 seals of Chang Ping-ch'ien (1670 chin-shih); 8 seals of Liang Ch'ing-piao (1620-1691); 2 seals of the Ch'ien-lung emperor (r. 1736-95); 4 seals of the Chia-ch'ing emperor (r. 1796-1820); 3 seals of the Hsüan-t'ung emperor (r. 1908-12); 2 seals of Yeh Kung-ch'o (1880-1965); 17 seals of Chang Yüan (Chang Ta-chien; 20th c.).