Children at Play
Xia Kui · 1508 · Cleveland Museum of Art
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From the museum
Sixteen children engage in scholarly, religious, and military activities, representing the popular “one hundred boys” theme expressing the wish for abundant, successful male offspring. Such paintings conveying auspicious wishes were often displayed during the New Year festival season. Two older boys wear small crowns with red tassels. Another child with a mask holds a brush in one hand, a rice measure in the other. He stands on a low table imitating Kuixing, the God of Examinations and servant to the God of Literature. In the foreground on the right are three boys playing a kind of blind man’s bluff.
The museum’s own description, in English. Licence: CC0
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Details
- Maker
- Xia Kui (Chinese, active c. 1405–1445)
- Date
- 1508
- Medium
- hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
- Dimensions
- Painting: 62.5 x 113.7 cm (24 5/8 x 44 3/4 in.); Overall with knobs: 214 x 137 cm (84 1/4 x 53 15/16 in.)
- Place of origin
- China
- Held by
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland · Not on view
- Credit line
- Gift of Charles L. Freer
Image: Cleveland Museum of Art, CC0