Scholar Reclining and Watching Rising Clouds; Poem by Wang Wei (c. 1256): Art, History and Details

Scholar Reclining and Watching Rising Clouds; Poem by Wang Wei (c. 1256) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Ma Lin (Chinese, c. 1185–after 1260).

The work and its context

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

Poem and painting, once mounted together as one fan, exemplify the collaboration between imperial patron and court painter. Emperor Lizong’s calligraphy cites a verse from Wang Wei’s (701–761) poem, Walking to where the water ends, I sit and watch when clouds arise. Ma Lin’s response is this painting. At the water’s edge, a scholar reclines by a large rock. The view leads across the empty middle ground to a distant mountain. With sparse ink and subtly graded washes, Ma Lin visualizes the poetic verse. The painting suggests the impact of Chan aesthetics through interaction between the palace, literati-officials, and monasteries around Hangzhou.

Object facts

• Title: Scholar Reclining and Watching Rising Clouds; Poem by Wang Wei
• Date: c. 1256
• Creator attribution: Ma Lin (Chinese, c. 1185–after 1260)
• Culture: China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Album leaf; ink on silk
• Dimensions: Image: 25.1 x 25.3 cm (9 7/8 x 9 15/16 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: 1961.421

A detail from the museum

Ma Lin was the son of Ma Yuan, the artist renowned for his unique composition and often referred to as "One-corner Ma."

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. Tea Taste in Japanese Art. New York, NY: The Asia House Gallery, dist. by H. Abrams, 1963.
• 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.
• 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.