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Drinking in the Moonlight
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Once the moon rises and the wine is finished, perhaps the reclined tipsy gentleman will return to the stone table, where ink, paper, and brush can be seen. For moon enthusiasts in Hangzhou, there was a site named Yue Yan, or Moon Cliff, behind the imperial precincts on Mount Fenghuang. With its geographical features of receding craggy rocks leading to the framed full moon, there is good reason to believe that the scene depicts this specific site. The association of this painting with Ma Yuan is stylistically based. However, the brushwork accords more with the aesthetic approach of his son, Ma Lin.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineDrinking in the Moonlight (舉杯邀月圖), late 1100s–early 1200s. Ma Yuan (Chinese, c. 1150–after 1255). Album leaf; ink on silk; painting: 24.5 x 25 cm (9 5/8 x 9 13/16 in.); overall: 67.6 x 39.2 cm (26 5/8 x 15 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Mrs. A. Dean Perry, 1997.89
