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Your galleryPlums, Bamboo, and Orchid
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Follow the old plum trunk as it twists up through the scroll, then look down for the bamboo around the rock and the low orchid leaves at the bottom.
Plum, bamboo and orchid are three of the Four Gentlemen of Chinese painting; only autumn’s chrysanthemum is missing. Each plant stands for a Confucian virtue: the plum for strength in hardship, bamboo for an open mind and the orchid for humility. Yamamoto Baiitsu, a scholar-painter from Nagoya, painted this large scroll in ink on silk and signed and dated it 1834 at lower left.
hanging scroll; ink on silk · Painting only: 172.4 x 79 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Plums, Bamboo, and Orchid
- Artist
- Yamamoto Baiitsu (Japanese, 1783–1856)
- Date
- 1834
- Medium
- hanging scroll; ink on silk
- Dimensions
- Painting only: 172.4 x 79 cm (67 7/8 x 31 1/8 in.); Including mounting: 252.7 x 105.4 cm (99 1/2 x 41 1/2 in.)
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Artist’s life 1783–1856
View in the AtlasGaller’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.