The Fool's Spring, from Twelve Views of Tiger Hill, Suzhou (after 1490): Art, History and Details

The Fool's Spring, from Twelve Views of Tiger Hill, Suzhou (after 1490) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Shen Zhou (Chinese, 1427–1509).

The work and its context

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

Views of Tiger Hill depicts a historic site a few miles northwest of Suzhou. The scenes simulate a visit from arriving by boat at the foot of the mountain to climbing to Cloudy Cliff Monastery. Representations of the artist’s mature style, Shen Zhou included views in subtle colors in the suite of monochrome scenes. A Suzhou native, Shen Zhou was supported by family wealth and rejected an official career in favor of life as a retired scholar. Turning to painting in midlife, he is regarded as the founder of the Wu School of painting, with its center in Suzhou.

Object facts

• Title: The Fool's Spring, from Twelve Views of Tiger Hill, Suzhou
• Date: after 1490
• Creator attribution: Shen Zhou (Chinese, 1427–1509)
• Culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Album leaf; ink on paper or ink and slight color on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 31.7 x 41.1 cm (12 1/2 x 16 3/16 in.); Overall: 36.5 x 49.9 cm (14 3/8 x 19 5/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Album leaf
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1964.371.2

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “Literati and Professionals: Four Ming Painters.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 53, no. 1, 1966, pp. 2–25.
• Cahill, James. Parting at the Shore: Chinese Painting of the Early and Middle Ming Dynasty, 1368-1580. New York: Weatherhill, 1978.
• Hironobu Kohara 古原宏伸, Richard Edwards, and Takeo Hibino 日比野丈夫. Shin Shū, Bun Chōmei [沈周文徴明 = Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming]. Tōkyō: Chūō Kōronsha, 1978.

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.