Old Trees by a Wintry Brook (1551): Art, History and Details

Old Trees by a Wintry Brook (1551) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Wen Zhengming (Chinese, 1470–1559).

The work and its context

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

Wen Zhengming was one of the most celebrated calligraphers and painters during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). His inscription, gracefully written in small characters on the upper left corner, reveals Wen’s emotional mood at that moment of creation. "In the fifteenth day of the fifth month, the year of xinhai [1551], [I], Zhengming, playfully write this Old Trees by a Wintry Brook at eighty-two [sui]." How should we understand a wintery landscape painted in the middle of spring? Was it simply inspired by a surprisingly late spring snow? Or can it be that the “wintery” brook reflects the octogenarian’s feelings about aging and his inevitable, approaching mortality? The junipers’ gnarled forms are a poignant symbol of aging and suffering, yet the ink-dot leaves on some branches suggest that the trees are still alive, awaiting the warmth of spring.

Object facts

• Title: Old Trees by a Wintry Brook
• Date: 1551
• Creator attribution: Wen Zhengming (Chinese, 1470–1559)
• Culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll, ink and light color on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 114.3 x 47 cm (45 x 18 1/2 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1997.102

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. A. Dean Perry

Further reading listed by the museum

• Naitō, Torajirō 內藤虎次郎. Min shitaika gafu [明四大家畫譜 = Paintings by the four great masters of the Ming dynasty]. Osaka: Hakubundō, 1924.
• Sirén, Osvald. A History of Later Chinese Painting. London: The Medici Society, 1938.
• Sirén, Osvald. Kinas konst under tre årtusenden. Stockholm: Natur och kultur, 1942.

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.