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Landscape with Gentle Peaks

after Kan Tenju (Japanese, 1727–1795)

possibly 1800s

Medium: hanging scroll; ink and light color on paper
Classification: Painting
Dimensions: Painting: 133.2 x 45.2 cm (52 7/16 x 17 13/16 in.); Mounted: 216 x 67.7 cm (85 1/16 x 26 5/8 in.)
Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art, Japanese Art
Credit line: Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings 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

About this work

A figure sits in a retreat tucked into the mountains near a waterfall. Kan Tenju was best known as a calligrapher and seal carver. Of Korean heritage, he was a patron of artist Ike Taiga (池大雅) (1723–1776), and a cousin of Taiga’s student Aoki Shukuya (青木夙夜) (died 1802). The Chinese-style poem reads as follows:

Smoky mist in the mountain reflects light after the rain, Sunlight passes through the clouds to cast shadows of the trees, Alone in the sunset, I read a well-worn book.