Chinese Beauty
Shunmanlate 1700s–early 1800s
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
Ukiyo-e artists’ exploration of beautiful people extended to figures from other lands. Here, an elegant Chinese palace lady holding a fan stands before a banana plant. The poem at the top is written in a Japanese appropriation of Chinese called <em>kanbun.</em> Based on its imagery of a palanquin (an enclosed couch with poles used for carrying passengers), silk fan, and autumn winds, it may allude to the story of Lady Ban (about 48 BC–about AD 2). A Chinese beauty famous for her scholarly achievements, Ban was once consort to an emperor but later lost his favor. In a poem attributed to her, she compared herself to a used silk fan put away in autumn.
- Title: Chinese Beauty
- Creator: Kubo Shunman (Japanese, 1757–1820)
- Date Created: late 1700s–early 1800s
- Physical Dimensions: Image: 96 x 37 cm (37 13/16 x 14 9/16 in.); Overall: 184.2 x 53.3 cm (72 1/2 x 21 in.)
- Provenance: (Eastern Fine Arts, 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/1988.1
- Medium: Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
- Original Title: 唐美人図
- Department: Japanese Art
- Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615-1868)
- Credit Line: Kelvin Smith Fund
- Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
- Accession Number: 1988.1
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