Pure Tones among Hills and Waters (1664): Art, History and Details

Pure Tones among Hills and Waters (1664) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Xiao Yuncong (Chinese, 1596–1673).

The work and its context

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

Painted at age 68, this landscape is one of Xiao Yuncong’s most mature works. Extraordinary in its combination of fine details with bold brushstrokes and bluish washes, it is also one of his longest compositions in handscroll format, extending over 23 feet. Throughout his lifetime, Xiao visited Nanjing and Yangzhou, where he met with other painters and literati. Regarded as the founder of the Gushu school (姑孰派) of painting, Xiao painted from nature, and his landscapes are informed by his travels, as well as by his experience as a print designer.

Object facts

• Title: Pure Tones among Hills and Waters
• Date: 1664
• Creator attribution: Xiao Yuncong (Chinese, 1596–1673)
• Culture: China, Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Handscroll; ink and light color on paper
• Dimensions: Painting: 31 x 781.6 cm (12 3/16 x 307 11/16 in.); Overall: 34 x 1194.8 cm (13 3/8 x 470 3/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Handscroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1954.262

A detail from the museum

Biographical notes on Xiao Yuncong relate that he did not pursue the career of an official, but "furnished a cottage in the eastern suburbs [of Wuhu in Anhui province] and amused himself playing the qin (zither) and reading every day."

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. Chinese Landscape Painting. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1954.
• Trubner, Henry. A Chinese Landscape by Hsiao Yün-Tsʼung. Oriental Art, New Series, V. 1, No. 3. [Surrey, England, etc.]: [Oriental Art Magazine, Ltd.], 1955.
• Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. New York: Ronald Press, 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.