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Landscape with Flying Geese
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Landscape with Flying Geese

Ma Lin (Chinese, c. 1185–after 1260), artist · mid-1200s · Album leaf; ink and slight color on silk

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.

About this work

This minimalist landscape places most of the representational elements in the lower right foreground. A lone gentleman strolls along a zigzagging path by the water. With the gentleman’s staff acting as a visual cue, the viewer’s gaze is directed to geese flying over distant mountains. The scene of a marshland, with its wet and soft ground dotted with vegetation, suggests springtime in Jiangnan. Combined with the flying geese, the album evokes the poetic lines: By spring fields, geese are about to return, Under chilly waters, fish are submerging.

Cleveland Museum of Art’s own description
Credit lineLandscape with Flying Geese (春郊回雁圖), mid-1200s. Ma Lin (Chinese, c. 1185–after 1260). Album leaf; ink and slight color on silk; image: 25.5 x 26.5 cm (10 1/16 x 10 7/16 in.); with mat: 33.3 x 40.5 cm (13 1/8 x 15 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1952.285

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