Ancestor Group Portrait (1796–1820): Art, History and Details

Ancestor Group Portrait (1796–1820) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

From top to bottom this scroll features various generations of ancestors with men on the right and women on the left, 30 figures altogether. Inscribed tablets give their rank and relation within the family. Square badges on their robes indicate each figure's rank as an official. Scrolls of this type were displayed for worship at home during the New Year celebrations.

Object facts

• Title: Ancestor Group Portrait
• Date: 1796–1820
• Culture: China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911), Jiaqing period (1796-1820)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 278.2 x 112.2 cm (109 1/2 x 44 3/16 in.); Painting only: 157.2 x 90.2 cm (61 7/8 x 35 1/2 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 2019.82

A detail from the museum

Court officials' wives could wear the same rank badge as their spouses.

Collection credit

Gift of Joyce G. Ames in honor of her husband B. Charles Ames

Further reading listed by the museum

• Spee, Clarissa von, and Yi-Hsia, Hsiao. “Facing the Ancestors.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 59, no. 5 (September/October 2019): 14–15.
• Spee, Clarissa von, and Yi-Hsia Hsiao. "Facing the Ancestors." The Asian Art Newspaper: Monthly for Collectors, Dealers, Museums and Galleries 23, no. 2 (Winter 2019): 10.

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.