Teapot with Landscape and Imperial Poem (1762–95): Art, History and Details

Teapot with Landscape and Imperial Poem (1762–95) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Chen Hanwen (Chinese, active c. 1720s–90s).

The work and its context

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

This teapot with a polished surface shows an imperial poem in gold on one side and a landscape on the other. The poem in archaic seal script was composed by the Qianlong emperor on his third southern inspection tour in 1762, when he traveled to southern China to solidify his rule. The base bears a stamped seal of its maker. Yixing potters produced teapots primarily for Ming dynasty literati-officials who valued simplicity and restraint, until the early Qing emperors introduced them at court.

Object facts

• Title: Teapot with Landscape and Imperial Poem
• Date: 1762–95
• Creator attribution: Chen Hanwen (Chinese, active c. 1720s–90s)
• Culture: China, Jiangsu province, Yixing, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Qianlong reign (1736–95)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Stoneware, with gold pigment, Yixing ware
• Dimensions: Diameter: 10.8 cm (4 1/4 in.); Overall: 7.5 cm (2 15/16 in.); with spout: 15 cm (5 7/8 in.)
• Collection: China - Qing Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1980.27

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1980.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 6 (1981): 163–219.
• von Spee, Clarissa. “The Power of Writing: A new display in the Chinese galleries focuses on inscriptions.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 58, no. 5 (September/October 2018): 12–13.
• von Spee, Clarissa. "China's Southern Paradise: Treasures From the Lower Yangzi Delta At the Cleveland Museum of Art." Arts of Asia (Winter 2023): 98–104.

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.