The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Brush Holder with Bamboo and Landscape Design

Brush Holder with Bamboo and Landscape Design

1800s
(1392–1910)
carved bamboo
Overall: 10.1 x 9 cm (4 x 3 9/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1988.74
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Stationery objects such as this brush holder were highly appreciated among scholars, not only for their function, but for their aesthetic.

Description

An 18th-century Korean collector Yu Man-joo (1755–1788) wrote that “spending money on luxury clothing, dishes, and decorations for the home is a waste, but acquiring fancy writing tools helps to develop elegant taste and high-mindedness.”

Inspired by aesthetic discourses on elegance versus vulgarity in late Ming Chinese literature, Korean collectors in the late 1700s and 1800s strove to assemble objects that would display their intellect and sophisticated taste. Stationery objects in particular—printed books, finely crafted brushes, brush holders, ink stones, water droppers, stone wares with grayish-white crackled glazes as well as bronze vessels, and incense burners—were all objects that reflected pure and elegant taste.
  • ?–1988
    (Masaaki Yoshida, Kyoto, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1988–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • “The Year in Review for 1988.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 76, no. 2 (February 1989): 30–75. p. 74, no. 212 www.jstor.org
    Joseon-Period Stationary Objects [朝鮮 時代 文房 諸具]. Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 1992.
    Yang Uisuk. Joseon ui mokgongye: bueoksegan gwa sarangbangui gimul [조선의 목공예: 부엌세간과 사랑방의 기물]. Seoul: Yenareu, 1994.
    Treasures from Korea: Arts and Culture of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392-1910. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2014.
    Wood Craft [목木·공工]. Seoul: Ehwa Woman’s University Museum, 2015.
  • Chaekgeori: Pleasure of Possessions in Korean Painted Screens. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (August 5-November 5, 2017).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 120). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 22–October 26, 2003).
    Asian Autumn: Later Korean Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 22, 1992-January 3, 1993).
    Scholar's Studio. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 19-December 17, 1989).
    The Year in Review for 1988. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 1-May 14, 1989).
  • {{cite web|title=Brush Holder with Bamboo and Landscape Design|url=false|author=|year=1800s|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1988.74