Writing Books under the Pine Trees (c. 1308–85): Art, History and Details

Writing Books under the Pine Trees (c. 1308–85) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Wang Meng (Chinese, c. 1308–1385).

The work and its context

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

Wang Meng, born into a distinguished family in Wuxing (modern Huzhou), Zhejiang province, was the maternal grandson of Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322). Aside from intermittent political commitments under the foreign Mongol and Ming governments, Wang dedicated most of his life to retirement, as conveyed in this painting. By the 1360s, when the Red Turbans began to rebel against the Yuan dynasty leaders, and the Mongols gradually lost control over Jiangnan, Wang Meng withdrew into the mountains north of Hangzhou, calling himself Woodcutter of Yellow Crane Mountain. In the early years of the Ming dynasty, Wang was caught up in a purge and died in prison.

Object facts

• Title: Writing Books under the Pine Trees
• Date: c. 1308–85
• Creator attribution: Wang Meng (Chinese, c. 1308–1385)
• Culture: China, Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Album leaf; ink and color on paper
• Dimensions: Painting: 39.8 x 56.9 cm (15 11/16 x 22 3/8 in.); Overall: 67.6 x 71.4 cm (26 5/8 x 28 1/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Album leaf
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1997.94

A detail from the museum

Wang Meng wrote the inscription at the right in classical seal script and applied his signature and seal on the left side of the composition.

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. A. Dean Perry

Further reading listed by the museum

• Bian, Yongyu [Pien Yung-yu 卞永譽]. Shi gu tang shu hua hui kao 式古堂书画汇考. 1682
• Sullivan, Michael. Chinese and Japanese Art. New York: Grolier, 1965.
• Lee, Sherman E., and Wai-kam Ho. Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yüan Dynasty, 1279-1368. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art; [distributed by the Press of Case Western Reserve University], 1968.

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.