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Boats at Anchor on West Lake at the City Gate
1150–1200
- Medium
- Album leaf; ink and color on silk
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Image: 25.3 x 19.2 cm (9 15/16 x 7 9/16 in.); with mat: 33.3 x 40.5 cm (13 1/8 x 15 15/16 in.)
- Culture
- China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Chinese Art
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Highlighted with a few bright accents, this fan painting conveys a nightly atmosphere with boats anchoring on West Lake at the foot of the city walls. Willow trees line the embankment, and the moon appears above the mountains. While the city is asleep, a figure wearing red inside a boat holds what appears to be a pipa (plucked stringed instrument), while a blue-robed gentleman nearby gazes toward the sound of music, evoking an association with Song of the Lute (Pipa xing) by Tang poet Bai Juyi (772–846) which tells the story of a romantic encounter on the Yangzi River.
