Scholar Watching the Waterfall (1764): Art, History and Details

Scholar Watching the Waterfall (1764) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Luo Ping (Chinese, 1733–1799).

The work and its context

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

In this hanging scroll, a scholar and his attendant contemplate a waterfall. A light breeze lifts the scholar’s robe and blows the tree leaves, suggesting movement. Luo Ping from Anhui province was orphaned after his family had moved to Yangzhou, but his talent was recognized by the salt merchant brothers Ma Yueguan (1688–1755) and Ma Yuelu (1697–after 1766), who introduced him to literati circles. His patrons' portraits are in CMA 1979.72. Inspired by painter Jin Nong in his early career, Luo became known for his creative figure paintings, including ghosts. Scholar Watching a Waterfall was painted in his Yangzhou studio in the year of Jin’s death.

Object facts

• Title: Scholar Watching the Waterfall
• Date: 1764
• Creator attribution: Luo Ping (Chinese, 1733–1799)
• Culture: China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Hanging scroll; ink and light color on paper
• Dimensions: Painting: 125.7 x 56.8 cm (49 1/2 x 22 3/8 in.); Overall: 230.5 x 72.1 cm (90 3/4 x 28 3/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1975.95

A detail from the museum

Luo Ping was the youngest of the Yangzhou Eccentrics.

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1975.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 63, no. 2 (February 1976): 31–71.
• Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman, and Marc F. Wilson. Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1980.
• Yang, Kathleen 楊凱琳, and Chi-chʻien Wang 王季遷. Through a Chinese connoisseur's eye: private notes of C.C. Wang 王季遷讀書筆記. Beijing: Zhong hua shu ju, 2010.

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.