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Find the arched bridges linking the small islands, the feature by which the museum identifies West Lake, then the inscription and two seals at upper right.
West Lake, near Hangzhou in China, was home to poets such as Bai Juyi and the recluse Lin Bu, and Japanese painters had made it a popular subject by the 1400s. Japanese literati painters could not travel to China, and among Taiga’s sources were pictures in Chinese woodblock-printed books. The Cleveland Museum of Art counts him among the first Japanese artists to follow China’s scholar-amateurs, who gave their paintings to friends.
Hanging scroll; ink and light color on paper · Painting: 58 x 133 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art
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Details and source
- Museum title
- West Lake
- Artist
- Ike Taiga (Japanese, 1723–1776)
- Date
- mid-1700s
- Medium
- Hanging scroll; ink and light color on paper
- Dimensions
- Painting: 58 x 133 cm (22 13/16 x 52 3/8 in.); Mounted: 170.5 x 140.3 cm (67 1/8 x 55 1/4 in.)
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Artist’s life 1723–1776
View in the AtlasGaller’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.