The Mountain of Five Cataracts (c. 1630): Art, History and Details

The Mountain of Five Cataracts (c. 1630) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Chen Hongshou (Chinese, 1598/99–1652).

The work and its context

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

A unique landscape painting in the existing body of Chen Hongshou’s art, this painting reveals his involvement with the practice of fang (imitation) to achieve creative transformation. Chen acquired the tradition stemming from Dong Yuan of the Five Dynasties, with which he sought an artistic individuality that lends his work an idiosyncratic vision and extraordinary power.

Object facts

• Title: The Mountain of Five Cataracts
• Date: c. 1630
• Creator attribution: Chen Hongshou (Chinese, 1598/99–1652)
• Culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink on silk
• Dimensions: Painting: 118 x 53 cm (46 7/16 x 20 7/8 in.); Overall: 232.4 x 69.7 cm (91 1/2 x 27 7/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1966.366

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Guan, Mianjun 關冕鈞. San qiu ge shu hua lu: 2 juan 三秋閣書畫錄: 二卷. [China]: Cangwu Guan shi 蒼梧關氏, Minguo 17 [1928].
• Tō Sō Gen Min meigaten-gō [唐宋元明名画展号]. Tōkyō: Tōkyō Asahi Shinbun Hakkōjo, 1928.
• Ferguson, John C 福開森. Li dai zhu lu hua mu 歷代著錄畵目. Nanjing: Chin-ling University, Zhong guo wen hua yan jiu suo 金陵大學中國文化硏究所, 1934.

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.