Dream Journey among Rivers and Mountains, no. 90
1658
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1658
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dream Journey among Rivers and Mountains, no. 90 is a 1658 unspecified by Cheng Zhengkui, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You unroll a long paper scroll filled with jagged cliffs, waterfalls, and tiny villages. Trees cling to rocks, and winding paths lead past shrines and bridges. This painting was meant to feel like a mental escape. Scholars in China’s Qing dynasty would imagine walking through scenes like this to leave behind their government jobs. The artist made over 100 versions of these "dream journeys," each one a quiet retreat on paper. If you like this, look up more works about *china, qing dynasty (1644-1911)*.
Cliffs and waterfalls interspersed with trees and dotted vegetation are spread over this handscroll. Long paths wind their way through villages, beside cottages, shrines, and over bridges. In the past, Chinese literati officials liked to take a “dream journey” along mountains and rivers when viewing landscape paintings in their studios. Scenery of this kind thus became a way to escape from the world of bureaucracy and administration. The painter Cheng Zhengkui used the title “Dream Journey” for a whole series of paintings, of which this is number 90. He is said to have painted 500 of them,…
Cheng Zhengkui planned to make 100 dream journey paintings but may have ultimately made 500.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Chéng Zhèngkuí (Ch'eng Cheng-k'ui, traditional: 程正揆, simplified: 程正揆); ca. 1604-1670 was a Chinese landscape painter and poet during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912). Cheng was born in Xiaogan in the Hubei province. His…
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