When Salt Was Gold: Yangzhou, City of Riches and Art

Clara T. Rankin Galleries of Chinese Art | Gallery 240A

The Cleveland Museum of Art

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• Date Friday, May 12, 2023 - Sunday, November 05, 2023
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The Cleveland Museum of Art is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes almost 45,000 objects and spans 6,000 years of achievement in the arts. Having recently completed an ambitious, multi-phase renovation and expansion project across... more

Yangzhou, situated north of the Yangzi River along the Grand Canal, linked cities in the lower Yangzi delta with major political headquarters in the north. A center of Buddhism and bronze mirror production during the Tang dynasty (618–906), the region has coastal marshes that provided sea salt for the empire and generated unprecedented income for Yangzhou merchants, who had been managing its distribution on behalf of the government since the 1600s. Yangzhou was the most economically and culturally flourishing city of 18th-century China.

Yangzhou’s wealth attracted artists, craftsmen, and literati who sought to make a living. Their patrons, mostly salt merchants, had mansions and gardens so grand that they hosted the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) emperors on their Inspection Tours. The merchant class sought recognition through establishing close ties to the court and by socializing with literati-officials.

Painters catered to the tastes of merchants and urban dwellers, combining the aesthetics of the literati with novelties in subject matter and style. Eccentricity, humor, a sketchy approach, and close-up compositions are characteristic of their works for sale, innovations that would later inspire modern artists in Shanghai.

Portrait of An Qi (detail), 1715. Wang Hui (Chinese, 1632–1717), Tu Luo (Chinese, active c. 1715), Yang Jin (Chinese, 1644–1728). Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper; image: 121.8 x 53.5 cm; overall: 259.7 x 89.5 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1971.1