Reminiscences of Qinhuai River (1642–1707): Art, History and Details

Reminiscences of Qinhuai River (1642–1707) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Shitao (Chinese, 1642–1707).

The work and its context

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

This album leaf was probably created in 1695 for a friend Shitao had traveled with to visit ancient sites along the Qinhuai River from the Six Dynasties period. A tiny figure in a boat looks up in awe toward rising mountain masses that form an overhanging cliff, perhaps an image for the overwhelming history of Nanjing. Shitao was born two years before the Ming dynasty fell. A descendant of the first Ming emperor, he later lived in Nanjing, Yangzhou, and Anhui province. Despite his affiliation with the Ming imperial family, he met the Qing dynasty Kangxi emperor twice.

Object facts

• Title: Reminiscences of Qinhuai River
• Date: 1642–1707
• Creator attribution: Shitao (Chinese, 1642–1707)
• Culture: China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Album leaf; ink and color on Song paper
• Dimensions: Image: 25.5 x 20.2 cm (10 1/16 x 7 15/16 in.); Overall: 33 x 24.3 cm (13 x 9 9/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Album leaf
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1966.31.8

A detail from the museum

The figure in the boat scans the cliff seeking a glimpse of a final plum blossom of the season.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Contag, Victoria. Die beiden Steine: Beitrag zum Verständnis des Wesens Chinesischer Landschaftsmalerei. Braunschweig: H. Klemm, 1950.
• Contag, Victoria. Zwei Meister chinesischer Landschaftsmalerei, Shih-t'ao und Shih-ch'i; ein Beitrag zum Verständnis des Wesens chinesischer Landschaftsmalerei. Baden-Baden: W. Klein, 1955.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.

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.