The Autumn Hunt (c. 1201–4): Art, History and Details

The Autumn Hunt (c. 1201–4) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Chen Juzhong (Chinese, active c. 1201–1207).

The work and its context

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

Equestrian pursuits and hunting were particularly popular among the Khitan (also spelled “Qidan”) and Jurchen, ethnic groups who lived along China’s northeastern border. Their nomadic lifestyle intrigued the Chinese court and inspired Chinese artists to develop a painting genre of foreign people hunting.

Object facts

• Title: The Autumn Hunt
• Date: c. 1201–4
• Creator attribution: Chen Juzhong (Chinese, active c. 1201–1207)
• Culture: China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: album leaf, ink and color on silk
• Dimensions: Painting: 24.4 x 27.3 cm (9 5/8 x 10 3/4 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: 1930.314

A detail from the museum

The rider at the left has a typical Qidan hairstyle: head shaved on top with thin braids below.

Collection credit

Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hollis, Howard C. “A Sung Dynasty Album Painting.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 21, no. 4, 1934, pp. 51–53.
• Goepper, Roger. 1000 Jahre chinesische Malerei. München [Munich, Germany]: Haus der Kunst, 1959.
• Arts Council of Great Britain, and Basil Gray. Catalogue of an Exhibition of the Arts of the Sung Dynasty. London: Oriental Ceramic Society, 1960.

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.