Bamboo in Four Seasons: Summer (1279–1368): Art, History and Details

Bamboo in Four Seasons: Summer (1279–1368) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The painting depicts high bamboo stems in a breeze with leaves all torn in one direction. The rock on the right suggests a garden setting. Bamboo remains green throughout the year; new shoots emerge every spring and are a Chinese delicacy. During the Yuan dynasty, monochrome ink painting became the dominant style of the scholar-artist, and is used here by a professional painter. Monochrome bamboo with leaves blown in the wind was a popular subject as its depiction demanded brushstrokes and techniques similar to writing calligraphy.

Object facts

• Title: Bamboo in Four Seasons: Summer
• Date: 1279–1368
• Culture: China, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink on silk
• Dimensions: Overall: 232.3 x 82.6 cm (91 7/16 x 32 1/2 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1982.150.1

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review for 1982.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 1 (January 1983): 3–55.
• Carpenter, John T., and Timothy Clark. Kazari: Decoration and Display in Japan, 15th-19th Centuries. Edited by 辻, 惟雄 and Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere. New York: Japan Society: Distributed by Harry N. Abrams, 2002.

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.