Provenance
(Mayuyama, Tokyo, Japan, sold to Kelvin and Eleanor Armstrong Smith ); The Kelvin Smith Collection, Cleveland, OH, given by Mrs. Kelvin [Eleanor Armstrong] Smith [1899–1998] to the Cleveland Museum of Art (?–1985); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1985–)
Accession Number
1985.372
Medium
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions
Overall: 61 x 49.2 cm (24 x 19 3/8 in.); Mounted: 172.6 x 68 cm (67 15/16 x 26 3/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Ink Silk Painting Chinese
Background & Context
Background Story
Yu Yuan (active Qing dynasty) was a Chinese painter known for the dynamically composed, precisely observed paintings of horses that make him one of the accomplished painters of the Qing dynasty tradition. Two Horses from the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) depicts two horses in the dynamically composed, precisely observed manner that distinguishes Yu Yuan's best work from the more general horse painting of his contemporaries. Horses were one of the most important subjects in Chinese painting, symbolizing speed, power, and military prowess, and the dynamically composed treatment shows the Chinese horse painting tradition at its most accomplished.
Cultural Impact
Two Horses is important in the history of Chinese painting because it demonstrates the dynamically composed, precisely observed manner of the Qing dynasty horse painting tradition. Horses—symbolizing speed, power, and military prowess—were one of the most important subjects in Chinese painting, and the dynamically composed, precisely observed treatment represents one of the most accomplished traditions in Chinese horse painting.
Why It Matters
Two Horses is Yu Yuan's dynamically composed Qing dynasty painting: two horses rendered in the precisely observed manner of one of the accomplished painters of the Qing dynasty tradition. The painting shows the horse—one of the most important subjects in Chinese painting—at its most dynamically composed.
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