Miniature Album with Figures and Landscape (Old Man on Donkey)

Miniature Album with Figures and Landscape (Old Man on Donkey) is a small painted work dated to 1822 by the Chinese artist Zeng Yangdong. The piece is part of the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it is displayed as an example of early nineteenth‑century brush painting.

The composition centers on an elderly figure astride a donkey, rendered in profile and shown moving sideways across an open space. The man wears a broad‑brimmed hat and a long coat, suggesting a traveler or itinerant figure, while the donkey’s posture and the figure’s relaxed pose convey a moment of quiet passage through a landscape.

Zeng Yangdong was known for his rapid, sketch‑like approach, a style that aligns with the literati tradition of valuing immediacy and personal expression over meticulous detail. This piece exemplifies that aesthetic, combining a modest narrative scene with calligraphic elements, a common pairing in Chinese album paintings that blended visual and literary art forms.