One Hundred Children at Play (1100s–1200s): Art, History and Details

One Hundred Children at Play (1100s–1200s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Su Hanchen (Chinese, active c. 1101–1125); Wang Juzhen (Chinese).

The work and its context

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

Paintings on the “one hundred children” theme usually have numerous, if not exactly 100, children. A majority of the children here imitate the dress, manners, and activities of the adult world. Whatever the exact significance of the subject, the painter of this album leaf clearly intended it to be savored figure by figure. With seemingly inexhaustible invention, the artist characterized each performer in the colorful pageant with unique accoutrements and action. The avoidance of overlapping allows each figure to be seen in clear detail, while all the figures are organized into a coherent composition. Garden settings with decorative rocks, blossoming shrubs, graceful willows, and lotus ponds had become fairly standard environments for late 12th- to 13th-century scenes of palace ladies as well as of playing children.

Object facts

• Title: One Hundred Children at Play
• Date: 1100s–1200s
• Creator attribution: Su Hanchen (Chinese, active c. 1101–1125); Wang Juzhen (Chinese)
• Culture: China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Album leaf; ink and color on silk
• Dimensions: Image: 28.7 x 31.2 cm (11 5/16 x 12 5/16 in.); with mat: 33.3 x 40.5 cm (13 1/8 x 15 15/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Album leaf
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1961.261

A detail from the museum

Following a baby’s birth, ceremonies and festivities traditionally marked the baby’s successive attainment of thirty days, one hundred days, and one year in age. “One hundred children” paintings such as this album leaf would have been suitable for presentation on either of the latter occasions.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cahill, James. The Art of Southern Sung China. New York: Asia House, 1962.
• Lee, Sherman E. and Wai-Kam Ho. "Scattered Pearls beyond the Ocean." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 51, No. 2 (Feb., 1964), pp. 23-39.
• National Gallery of Canada, and Expo (International Exhibitions Bureau). Terre Des Hommes: Exposition Internationale Des Beaux-Arts, 28 Avril-27 Octobre 1967 [= Man and His World, International Fine Arts Exhibition, Expo 67, Montreal, Canada, 28 April-27 October 1967]. Montréal: Expo 67, 1967.

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.