Water Buffalo and Herd Boys

between 1368 and 1460

On View

Chinese Art, Level 1, North Wing

Water Buffalo and Herd Boys: 1 of Collection Gallery

Water Buffalo and Herd Boys: 2 of Collection Gallery

Water Buffalo and Herd Boys: 3 of Collection Gallery

Water Buffalo and Herd Boys: 4 of Collection Gallery

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About the Artwork

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Provenance

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Exhibition History

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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Credit Line for Reproduction

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About the Artwork

In this sprawling riverside scene, thirty-five young boys watch over a herd of eighty-five water buffalo and three cows. Some animals graze, swim, or walk calmly. Others are rowdy, resisting the herder’s lead or locking horns.
Members of the urban Chinese elite often romanticized rural subjects such as this one, believing country life to be simpler and more peaceful than their own. Some viewers of this painting might have focused on playful details, such as the boy climbing a tree or the pair of friends chatting on a rocky outcrop. But others may have paid more attention to the theme of labor. Many of the boys exert themselves to keep their herd in check, pulling on, chasing, or even swimming after unruly bovines. And when not at pasture, the buffalo themselves worked as draft animals, plowing the fields that fed people in the city and countryside alike.

Title Water Buffalo and Herd Boys

Artwork Date between 1368 and 1460

Artist ----------

Life Dates ----------

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Chinese

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Ink and watercolor on silk

Dimensions Overall: 15 1/4 inches × 19 feet 3 1/4 inches (38.7 cm × 5 m 87.4 cm) Image: 12 1/2 × 120 inches (31.8 × 304.8 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department Asian Art

Credit Founders Society Purchase with funds from Mrs. Walter R. Parker

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 31.284

Markings

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Provenance

(Celestin Liu);
1931-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA) with funds from Margaret W. Parker

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

March, Benjamin. "Spring Pasture," Bulletin of the DIA 13, no.6 (March 1932).

Art in Asia and the West. Exh. cat., San Francisco Museumof Art. San Francisco, October 28-December 1, 1957, p. 34, no. 18aa.

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Chinese, Water Buffalo and Herd Boys, between 1368 and 1460, ink and watercolor on silk. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase with funds from Mrs. Walter R. Parker, 31.284.