Distant View of Tiger Hill from the Canal Mooring, from Twelve Views of Tiger Hill, Suzhou

Date: after 1490
Medium: Album leaf; ink on paper or ink and slight color on paper
Dimensions: Image: 31.5 x 40.6 cm (12 3/8 x 16 in.); Overall: 36.5 x 49.9 cm (14 3/8 x 19 5/8 in.)
Country / context: China
Movement / tradition: Chinese painting
Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art
Pathway: Chinese painting ↗

FROM THE MUSEUM

Views of Tiger Hill depicts a historic site a few miles northwest of Suzhou. The scenes simulate a visit from arriving by boat at the foot of the mountain to climbing to Cloudy Cliff Monastery. Representations of the artist’s mature style, Shen Zhou included views in subtle colors in the suite of monochrome scenes. A Suzhou native, Shen Zhou was supported by family wealth and rejected an official career in favor of life as a retired scholar. Turning to painting in midlife, he is regarded as the founder of the Wu School of painting, with its center in Suzhou.

Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0

A MOMENT TO LOOK

Start with what you can see: shapes, surface, colour and scale. How might the listed materials affect the way this object was made and experienced?

Looking prompt · an invitation to observe, not a historical interpretation.

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