Landscape with Poet Tao Yuanming (365–472 CE) (1200s–1400s): Art, History and Details

Landscape with Poet Tao Yuanming (365–472 CE) (1200s–1400s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Poet Tao Yuanming (365–427 CE) turned down a civil service career in politically turbulent times to write poetry and enjoy his garden. In his poem Drinking Wine, he wrote: "I pluck chrysanthemums under the eastern fence, and serenely I gaze at the southern mountains." His desire to leave bureaucratic life for the simplicity and authenticity of nature has deeply resonated with generations of Chinese scholars, making it a popular theme in paintings.

Object facts

• Title: Landscape with Poet Tao Yuanming (365–472 CE)
• Date: 1200s–1400s
• Culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368-1644) or earlier
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Album leaf; ink and color on silk
• Dimensions: Diameter: 25.7 cm (10 1/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Album leaf
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1915.702

A detail from the museum

The archaic vessels and qin, or seven-stringed zither, on the table allude to the gentleman-scholar’s cultural refinement.

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

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.