The beautiful painting Clouds Visiting a Mountain Retreat is currently on view at the Cleveland Art Museum. The museum regularly rotates its vast Asian collection, and new works (new to me) are frequently to be found.
The cloud-swathed mountain dominates the landscape; the travellers in the lower-left are easily overlooked. It’s early morning or early evening, the time when fogs and mists invade the earth and loosen ghosts and apparitions. The mountain, towering above our heads, is veiled in silence. For the travellers, crossing the bridge is like walking into a dream.
Clouds Visiting a Mountain Retreat, 1633, T. Hong
Tao Hong is Chinese. Ink on silk. 70″ x 40″. Monumental in size and feeling.