Layered Peaks and Splashing Waterfall: Portrait of Hua Yan as a Young Man

1705

Hua Yan

Hua Yan (Chinese, 1682–c. 1765)

Chinese Art

Layered Peaks and Splashing Waterfall: Portrait of Hua Yan as a Young Man, 1705. Hua Yan (Chinese, 1682–c. 1765), and Wei Shijie (Chinese, 1667-after 1747). Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk; 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of various donors by exchange 2001.120 Hua Yan's autobiographical inscription, full of remorse and insecurity, is squeezed into the contour of a hill in the upper left.

Original Source

Maker/Artist: Hua Yan
Classification: Painting
Formatted Medium: hanging scroll, ink and color on silk
Medium: hanging, scroll, ink, color, silk
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.)
Inscribed: Inscription: 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 Translation: Poem by Wei Shijie: I am not so skilled in portraiture;/ You are far superior in composing pictures./ By chance we had a piece of silk cut to size./ But await [a master] with the skill of three strands./ Shrouding the cliff, the panpipe’s sound seems all-penetrating./ Well nourished and sincere, you hide the sword in the shield./ The sheer cliffs stand against the flying snow./ Can we hear the Guanglin tides at all?/ Portrait painted for Qiuyue (Hua Yan) by Shijie. Seals: Wei Shijie, Ziliang Remark: In the context of portraiture, "three strands" 三豪 likely refers to Gu Kaizhi's 顧愷之 depicting the likeness of his contemporary Pei Kai 斐楷. By adding three hairs or strands of beard in Pei Kai's cheeks, he was able to accentuate his personal characteristics. Inscription: 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。 Translation: Inscription by Hua Yan: Since I became an orphan, I set about to travel widely. Like an uprooted man, I was aimless. In the end, all I have left is but to heave a deep sigh./ When compared with Ruan Ji [AD 210–263], I am ashamed to have achieved so little: a full decade I lost for not having studied. Faced with Hou Ba’s [1st century AD] inquisitiveness, I felt inadequate: why didn’t I carry any books with me in my long journeys? Mt. Kuanglu, moreover, is far away; even if I could still see the snow flurries around its peaks in my imagination, what’s the use? But Yanjing is by no means distant; still I am unable to discern a sword that can turn into a dragon./ My kind mother has been longing for me. It’s utterly senseless that I should travel so far. Listen to the call of the cuckoo; more than ever it is time to return. Alas, I trod many wrong paths in my life. I have become a lost sheep! To improve myself seems like climbing a pole of a hundred feet./ I was uncouth indeed. You may portray me as a wild eccentric! Remark: Hua's reference to being an orphan likely refers to the death of his father. Inscription: Top inscription on the painting by Jiang Hongdao 將弘道, dated yiyou, the forty-fourth year of the Kangxi era (1705) Inscription: Seven additional colophons on the silk mounting
Departments: Chinese Art
Accession Number: 2001.120
Credit Line: Gift of various donors by exchange
Exhibitions: Greeting the Spring (Chinese art rotation, galleries 240a, 239, 241c), Facing the Ancestors: Chinese Portraits and Figure Painting – Chinese Gallery Rotation 240a, 241c
Rights Statement: CC0