River Village in a Rainstorm
c. 1480–1507
Medium
Hanging scroll; ink and slight color on silk
Dimensions
279.6 × 124.8 cm · painting: 170.5 × 103.4 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Chinese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
1970.76
Tags
About this artwork
In this scene, windswept rain pelting a village captures the power of nature in a masterful composition. Lü Wenying from Zhejiang served as a court painter during the Hongzhi era (1488–1505). Hardly known, with few remaining works, he is considered a Zhe school painter who followed the style of the Southern Song academy. Zhe school painters, named after the province of Zhejiang, transformed the poetic scenery of the Southern Song artists into dramatic, large-scale views. Active in the same regio...
About the Artist
Lu Wenying (Chinese)
The artist known simply as "Chinese" in museum records represents the vast tradition of anonymous or unattributed masters in Chinese art history, with 99 works preserved in our collection. These pieces exemplify the enduring legacy of guó huà, or traditional Chinese painting, one of the world's oldest continuous artistic practices. Early life is not well documented, as is common for many practitio...