Willow and Magpie (mid-1200s): Art, History and Details

Willow and Magpie (mid-1200s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Fachang Muqi (Chinese, 1220–1280).

The work and its context

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

The Willow and Magpie is the product of a mindset that combines knowledgeable observation of birds in general and magpies in particular with an image-making process using a sophisticated ink technique to suggest the nature of the bird, the general characteristics of willow, and the visual effect of rain and mist. These are not trivial accomplishments but of equal importance with Southern Song period achievements in lyrical poetry or canal building.

Object facts

• Title: Willow and Magpie
• Date: mid-1200s
• Creator attribution: Fachang Muqi (Chinese, 1220–1280)
• Culture: China, Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 60.4 x 30.9 cm (23 3/4 x 12 3/16 in.); Overall: 137.2 x 48.3 cm (54 x 19 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1982.53

A detail from the museum

This precious hanging scroll is stored in an elaborate inner box of lacquer with raised gold lacquer inscription on lid and silver loops on sides with lavish woven orange cords; its outer box has an amber color with woven tie.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review for 1982.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 1 (January 1983): 3–55.

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.