Quails and Sparrows in an Autumn Scene
Wang Yuan (Chinese, c. 1299–after 1366)
1347
- Medium
- hanging scroll, ink on paper
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Painting: 114.3 x 56 cm (45 x 22 1/16 in.); Overall with knobs: 267.5 x 85 cm (105 5/16 x 33 7/16 in.)
- Culture
- China, Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Chinese Art
- Credit line
- Bequest of Mrs. A. Dean Perry
- 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
The flower-and-bird subjects here are depicted in a meticulous manner, echoing the academic tradition but translating the customarily colored images to plain monochrome. Fine ink lines combined with carefully graded washes define the contours and give subtle modeling to the natural forms.
Wang Yuan excelled in flower-and-bird subjects as well as landscape and figure paintings. A child prodigy, he was instructed by the great Yuan master Zhao Mengfu at an early age.
