Tao Yuanming's Return Home (1300s): Art, History and Details

Tao Yuanming's Return Home (1300s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Tao Yuanming's revered poem "Return Home 歸去來辭 (Gui qu lai ci)" powerfully conveys his desire to leave bureaucratic life for the simplicity and authenticity of nature. This sentiment has deeply resonated with generations of Chinese scholars, making it a popular theme in paintings. This handscroll uses continuous narrative depicting Tao in multiple scenes from the poem. Starting on the right, the poet travels to his home. His children wait by the gate, while his wife pauses to tidy her hair before welcoming him. Then, free from the burdens of official service, Tao spends time in both nature and his cottage, where he can again enjoy wine, music, and books.

Object facts

• Title: Tao Yuanming's Return Home
• Date: 1300s
• Culture: China, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Handscroll; ink and slight color on silk
• Dimensions: Image: 34.6 x 566.4 cm (13 5/8 x 223 in.); Overall: 37.7 x 1001.1 cm (14 13/16 x 394 1/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Handscroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1982.152

A detail from the museum

Poet Tao Yuanming 陶淵明 (c. 365–427 CE) returned to a secluded life instead of pursuing a civil service career.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Harrist, Robert E. "Watching Clouds Rise: A Tang Dynasty Couplet and Its Illustration in Song Painting." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 7 (November 1991): 301–323.
• Wilson, J. Keith. "The Fine Art of Drinking: The Chinese Silversmith Zhu Bishan and His Sculptural Cups." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 10 (December 1994): 380–401.
• Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華 : 特别展 : クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから = Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998.

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.