Greeting the Spring (1600): Art, History and Details

Greeting the Spring (1600) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Wu Bin (Chinese, active c. 1591–1626).

The work and its context

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

This masterfully composed landscape in light colors and delicate brushwork is an image of the water-rich Jiangnan region in southeast China, where Wu Bin was active as an artist. Embedded in rolling hills along lakesides and streams nestle cityscapes hosting numerous spring festivities. Lantern displays and street performances in the villages salute the New Year, and are interwoven with scenes of farming, fishing, and silk making. In one scene in the middle ground, an ox made of clay under a canopy is lead in a procession to an architectural compound, a ceremony known as whipping the spring ox in hope for a good harvest.

Object facts

• Title: Greeting the Spring
• Date: 1600
• Creator attribution: Wu Bin (Chinese, active c. 1591–1626)
• Culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: handscroll; ink and light color on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 34.3 x 252.8 cm (13 1/2 x 99 1/2 in.); Overall: 35 x 1022.2 cm (13 3/4 x 402 7/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Handscroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1959.45

A detail from the museum

This handscroll bears five collector seals by the Qianlong emperor indicating his appreciation for the painting.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hu, Jing 胡敬. Hu shi shu hua kao san zhong 胡氏書畫考三種. Taipei: Han hua wen hua shi ye gu fen you xian gong si, 1971.
• Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. New York: Ronald Press, 1956.
• Chen, Rentao 陳仁濤 [J.D. Chen]. Gu gong yi yi shu hua mu jiao zhu 故宮已佚書畫目校注. Hong Kong: Dongnan shu ju, 1956.

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.