Cleveland Museum of Art

Fishermen-Hermits in Stream and Mountain

Zhao Yong

Date

1300s

Medium

Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk

Culture

China, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)

Department

Chinese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

In this typical southern two shores divided by a river composition, two fishermen, each seated in the stern of his covered houseboat, troll their hooks in the swirling water, holding short rods fitted with spooling reels. Zhao Yong was a son of the southern calligrapher and statesman Zhao Mengfu, who, like his father was a scholar-official in the Mongol-Yuan government. As public servants of the Yuan state and administration, scholar-artists like the Zhaos delighted in paintings that pictured them in nature as fishermen amid vistas of Jiangnan, which they considered their home. The composition of two shores divided by a river was mostly famously associated with the Yuan painter Ni Zan.

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