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
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...