# One Hundred Children at Play

- By: Su Hanchen (Chinese, active c. 1101–1125)
- By: Wang Juzhen (Chinese)
- Date: 1100s–1200s
- Medium: Album leaf; ink and color on silk
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Image: 28.7 x 31.2 cm (11 5/16 x 12 5/16 in.); with mat: 33.3 x 40.5 cm (13 1/8 x 15 15/16 in.)
- Culture: China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
- Credit line: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1961.261)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/cma/1961.261/1961.261_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Paintings on the “one hundred children” theme usually have numerous, if not exactly 100, children. A majority of the children here imitate the dress, manners, and activities of the adult world. Whatever the exact significance of the subject, the painter of this album leaf clearly intended it to be savored figure by figure. With seemingly inexhaustible invention, the artist characterized each performer in the colorful pageant with unique accoutrements and action. The avoidance of overlapping allows each figure to be seen in clear detail, while all the figures are organized into a coherent composition. Garden settings with decorative rocks, blossoming shrubs, graceful willows, and lotus ponds had become fairly standard environments for late 12th- to 13th-century scenes of palace ladies as well as of playing children.