Layered Peaks and Splashing Waterfall: Portrait of Hua Yan as a Young Man
Hua Yan1705
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
This portrait was jointly executed by Wei Shijie and Hua Yan himself who painted the landscape in the background. Hua Yan is shown here at the age of about 23. The sword at his back is a reference to his early desire for a military career, while the scholar’s robe suggests an opposing aspiration. Together these are signs of a complex personality.
The painting also reveals Hua Yan’s early talent in painting. While Wei Shijie is little known, Hua Yan would later become a well-known painter. In addition to Wei Shijie and Hua Yan, nine of Hua Yan’s contemporary friends left inscriptions on the painting.
- Title: Layered Peaks and Splashing Waterfall: Portrait of Hua Yan as a Young Man
- Creator: Hua Yan (Chinese, 1682-about 1765), Wei Shijie (Chinese, 1667-after 1747)
- Date Created: 1705
- Physical Dimensions: Painting: 130 x 47.2 cm (51 3/16 x 18 9/16 in.); Overall: 281 x 95 cm (110 5/8 x 37 3/8 in.)
- Provenance: Hua Pinyu 華品玉 (active 1800s), (Christie's, New York, Important Classical Chinese Paintings, June 1, 1989 sale, lot 30), Private Collection of a Min Chiu Society 敏求精舍 member, Hong Kong, (Christie's, Hong Kong, Fine Chinese Classical Painting an Calligraphy, April 25, 1999, lot 270), (Kaikodo America Inc., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Painting
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/2001.120
- Medium: hanging scroll, ink and color on silk
- Original Title: 層崗飛瀑圖
- Inscriptions: 寫照余非擅，營圖爾自高。/ 偶然裁尺幅，毋待著三豪。/ 護嶺笙疑徹，豐誠劍且韜。/ 懸崖對飛雪，如聼廣陵濤。/ 士傑為秋岳道盟作小影並題。 [印]：魏士傑，子良, 僕自棄孤，乍設己隨四方。蓬根飄零，竟成浩嘆。 媿窮途於阮籍。十年悔不讀書。羞問字之侯芭。千里何曾負笈。而況匡廬既遠。空懐飛雪之崖。延津未遥，莫辯化龍之劍。 慈親在望，空事遠游。杜宇為聲，不如歸去。嗟乎，半生岐途，未免亡羊。百尺竿頭，如何進歩。 從前孟浪，圖此猖狂。, Top inscription on the painting by Jiang Hongdao 將弘道, dated yiyou, the forty-fourth year of the Kangxi era (1705), Seven additional colophons on the silk mounting
- Fun Fact: Hua Yan's autobiographical inscription, full of remorse and insecurity, is squeezed into the contour of a hill in the upper left.
- Department: Chinese Art
- Culture: China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
- Credit Line: Gift of various donors by exchange
- Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
- Accession Number: 2001.120
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