A Hundred Sparrows in a Lofty Grove (1368–1644): Art, History and Details

A Hundred Sparrows in a Lofty Grove (1368–1644) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Lin Liang (Chinese, 1416–1480).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Sparrows engaged in all kinds of activities frolic amid leafy branches, blades of grass, rocks, and a waterfall. As our eyes move over the scroll, the artist engages us in enjoying the sparrows’ carefree movements in a natural setting. The charming birds were painted from close observation in swift and fluent brushstrokes. Sparrows are a common bird and in Chinese painting they often represent the commoner in human society as opposed to the noble pheasant or peacock representative of the ruling class.

Object facts

• Title: A Hundred Sparrows in a Lofty Grove
• Date: 1368–1644
• Creator attribution: Lin Liang (Chinese, 1416–1480)
• Culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: handscroll; ink on silk
• Dimensions: Overall: 28.6 x 498.2 cm (11 1/4 x 196 1/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Handscroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1981.4

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1981.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 69, no. 2 (February 1982): 39–82. Published as: One Hundred Birds
• Little, Stephen. “Chinese Calligraphy.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 74, no. 9 (November 1987): 372–403.
• Laozi, James Legge, translator, and forward by Livia Kohn. Tao Te Ching 道德经. New York: Metro Books, 2008.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.