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Children at Play
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Sixteen children engage in scholarly, religious, and military activities, representing the popular “one hundred boys” theme expressing the wish for abundant, successful male offspring. Such paintings conveying auspicious wishes were often displayed during the New Year festival season. Two older boys wear small crowns with red tassels. Another child with a mask holds a brush in one hand, a rice measure in the other. He stands on a low table imitating Kuixing, the God of Examinations and servant to the God of Literature.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineChildren at Play (嬰戲圖), 1508. Xia Kui (Chinese, active c. 1405–1445). Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk; painting: 62.5 x 113.7 cm (24 5/8 x 44 3/4 in.); overall with knobs: 214 x 137 cm (84 1/4 x 53 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Charles L. Freer, 1915.110
