Famous Early Modern Calligraphers and Painters (late 1700s to mid-1800s): Art, History and Details

Famous Early Modern Calligraphers and Painters (late 1700s to mid-1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This set of two folding-albums comprises a collection of calligraphies and paintings produced by Japanese artists over a long span of time. Those whose works are represented in the albums were all deeply interested in Chinese culture. They were especially attracted to the idea they found in Chinese society of a community of educated friends who shared works in prose, poetry, and painting among one another through correspondence or gatherings. The covers of both albums are inscribed and sealed by an individual who assembled their contents for posterity.

Object facts

• Title: Famous Early Modern Calligraphers and Painters
• Date: late 1700s to mid-1800s
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Portfolio
• Technique: Set of two folding-albums; ink and color on silk and paper
• Dimensions: Each album, closed: 31 x 21 cm (12 3/16 x 8 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1972.117

A detail from the museum

The album's storage box has a title inscription in ink reading Famous Early Modern Calligraphers and Painters.

Collection credit

Gift of Mary B. Lee, C. Bingham Blossom, Dudley S. Blossom III, Laurel B. Kovacik, and Elizabeth B. Blossom, in memory of Elizabeth B. Blossom

Further reading listed by the museum

• Graham, Patricia J. "Lifestyles of Scholar-Painters in Edo Japan." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 7 (September 1990): 262–283.

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.