Returning Sails off a Distant Shores, from Eight Views of Xiao-Xiang
1788
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1788
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Returning Sails off a Distant Shores, from Eight Views of Xiao-Xiang is a 1788 unspecified by Tani Bunchō, a Nihonga work, depicting Zhejiang Province, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a serene landscape with sails in the distance, set against a misty background. This painting is part of a set of album leaves representing a theme from Chinese poetry. It's interesting because it shows how Japanese artists were inspired by Chinese ideas. To learn more about this style, check out the work at The Cleveland Museum of Art.
This painting was part of a set of album leaves representing the Eight Views of Xiao-Xiang, a theme originating in Chinese poetry and painting that spread to both Korea and Japan. Southern China’s Xiao-Xiang area, where the mist-covered banks of the Xiang River created a complex landscape shifting like the moods and minds of people, captured the imaginations of generations of painters and calligraphers. Inscriptions on these works suggest that they were possibly ordered by newly prominent Japanese Confucian scholars.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Tani Bunchō (1763–1841) was a Japanese artist, born in Negishi.
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