Alternate Views

The Poet Lin Bu Wandering in the Moonlight

late 1400s

Du Jin 杜堇

(Chinese, 1446-c. 1519)

China, Ming dynasty

(1368-1644)

Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper

Image: 156.4 x 72.4 cm (61 9/16 x 28 1/2 in.); Overall: 286.4 x 99 cm (112 3/4 x 39 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1954.582

Location

not on view

Description

A figure with a staff walks at a leisurely pace in deep concentration. This is the image of the Northern Song poet Lin Bu, a hermit withdrawing from prestigious government services to retreat by the West Lake in Hangzhou. He was known for having a plum tree as his spouse and a crane as his child. The ideal described by Lin Bu in his poetry sparked the cultural imagination of the people of the Northern Song dynasty.

Du Jin’s poem in this painting reads:
Accompanying the moon, his walk slowed to leisurely pace.
This was all the more fitting as he was merely half awake.
Having composed the line of sparse sound and chilled fragrance,
T’is time to ask: Was the plum blossom aware of its own essence?

Provenance

Zhang Heng 張珩 [1915–1963]

?-1954

(C. C. Wang 王季遷 [1907–2003], New York, NY, ?-1954, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1954-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 1954-present

Citations

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 859 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 263 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 263 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 349 archive.org

Little, Stephen. “Dimensions of a Portrait: Du Jin's ‘The Poet Lin Bu Walking in the Moonlight.’” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 75, no. 9, 1988, pp. 330–349. Reproduced: cover, figs. 1a, 1b, 1c, and 1d www.jstor.org

Greene, David B. How to Respond to Strangeness in Art: Four Studies in the Unfamiliar. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2006. Reproduced: fig. 3.4

Chou, Ju-hsi Chou and Anita Chung. Silent Poetry: Chinese Paintings from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 256-259

Tanenbaum, Mary. Fishing on the Terrace: A Collection of Writings, edited by Heather Parks. [Redwood City, CA] Stanford University Press, 2018. Reproduced: p. 30

Giuffrida, Noelle. Separating Sheep from Goats: Sherman E. Lee and Chinese Art Collecting in Postwar America. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2018. Reproduced: p. 108, fig. 61

Exhibition history

Nanking Art Gallery, 1937: Chiao-yu-pu, I, cat. no. 138.

Cleveland Museum of Art, 1954: Lee, Chinese Landscape Painting, cat. no. 42.

Haus der Kunst, Munich, 1959: 1000 Jahre, cat. no. 42.

Cleveland Museum of Art, 1960: Chinese Painting, no. catalogue.

Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, 1968: Bowie, One Thousand Years, cat. no. 27.

Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981: Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting, cat. no. 157, p. 191-192.

Nara National Museum, Japan (2/21-3/29/98); Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo (4/28-6/21/98) "Highlights of Asian Painting from The Cleveland Museum of Art" p. 58, cat. no. 34.

NY: China Institute Gallery (9/14-12/20/00), "The Chinese Painter as Poet" exh. no. 8, p 66, p. 133.

The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 12, 2016 - July 31, 2016); “Ji Yunfei: Last Days of Village Wen”

Art: The International Language. The Cleveland Museum of Art (October 2-November 4, 1956).

Highlights of Asian Paintings from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Nara National Museum (organizer) (February 21-March 29, 1998); Suntory Museum of Art (April 28-June 21, 1998).

The Chinese Painter as Poet. China Institute Gallery (organizer) (September 14-December 17, 2000).

Ji Yunfei: Last Days of Village Wen. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 12-July 31, 2016).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=The Poet Lin Bu Wandering in the Moonlight|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1954.582|author=Du Jin|year=late 1400s|access-date=15 June 2019|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Contact us

Request a digital file from image services

To request more information about this object, study images, or bibliography, contact the Ingalls Library Reference Desk.

The information about this object, including provenance information, is based on historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on objects is an ongoing process, but the information about this object may not reflect the most current information available to CMA. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@clevelandart.org.

Is something not working on this page? Please email help.website@clevelandart.org.

You are here:

The Poet Lin Bu Wandering in the Moonlight

The Poet Lin Bu Wandering in the Moonlight

Du Jin 杜堇

China, Ming dynasty

Location

Description

Contact us