Bring your favorites together in your free personal gallery.
Your galleryClouds and Waves at the Wu Gorge
Look first
- What catches your attention?
- Where does your eye go next?
- What would you ask about this work?
Show me
Find the boat and its crew in the churning waves near the bottom, then look up past the twisted trees and drifting clouds to the title and signature at the upper left.
Xie Shichen probably painted this after a journey of 1547 that took him through Sichuan and along the Yangzi River. From high above, the view drops deep into the Wu Gorge, where churning water threatens a boat. The Cleveland Museum of Art thinks so large a painting, almost three meters tall with its knobs, was likely made for the grand hall of a wealthy or powerful family, to impress its visitors.
hanging scroll; ink and light color on paper · Painting: 243.1 x 90 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art · Chinese painting: Ming
Look again
What do you notice now?
Try a quick sketch
Take a minute to sketch on any paper. No upload needed.
What did you draw first? What did you leave out?
Details and source
- Museum title
- Clouds and Waves at the Wu Gorge
- Artist
- Xie Shichen (Chinese, 1487–after 1567)
- Date
- c. 1547–67
- Medium
- hanging scroll; ink and light color on paper
- Dimensions
- Painting: 243.1 x 90 cm (95 11/16 x 35 7/16 in.); Overall with knobs: 295.6 x 115 cm (116 3/8 x 45 1/4 in.)
- Credit line
- Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.