2015.27: Nahan (Chinese, Luohan) Standing in a Landscape Viewing an Ink-Painted Scroll Depicting a Seated Bodhisattva While Assisted by an Elderly Male Attendant

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2015.27

Title

Nahan (Chinese, Luohan) Standing in a Landscape Viewing an Ink-Painted Scroll Depicting a Seated Bodhisattva While Assisted by an Elderly Male Attendant

Classification

Paintings

Work Type

painting

Date

18th-early 19th century

Places

Creation Place: East Asia, Korea

Period

Chosŏn dynasty, 1392-1910

Culture

Korean

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/197973

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Section of a hanging scroll mounted on a panel and framed; ink and colors on paper

Dimensions

painting proper: H. 49.8 x W. 46 cm (19 5/8 x 18 1/8 in.)
frame: H. 71.8 x W. 61 cm (28 1/4 x 24 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

John M. Lyden, New York, (1965-1987). [Kang Collection, New York (by 1995)], sold; Ralph C Marcove, New York (1995-2001), inherited; by Christina J. Marcove, New York (2001-2015), gift; to the Harvard Art Museums.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Christina Marcove and Laura Marcove Hoffman in honor of Robert D. Mowry

Accession Year

2015

Object Number

2015.27

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

This painting is mounted and framed as a discrete album leaf. Done in ink and colors on paper, the painting, which might originally have been mounted as a hanging scroll, presumably came from a larger set of multiples, each representing an arhat (Korean: nahan; Chinese: luohan) -- saintly, enlightened beings who protect the Buddhist faith. This painting depicts an arhat clad in a pink monk’s robe, embellished with a red sash and a green cape, standing at the left edge of the composition beside a tall blue-and-green rock and beneath an old, gnarled tree branch with red and green foliage. A halo encircles the arhat's head. Dressed in a russet robe and wearing a black hat with long ribbons trailing at the back, an attendant stands at the right edge of the composition. The attendant holds the upper edge of a hanging scroll, which the arhat is unrolling. The scroll, which represents an ink painting and which is mounted in red and black, represents a bodhisattva seated on a rock. A green rock occupies the lower left corner of the composition; the even-toned green ground that traverses the foreground fades away in the middle and backgrounds to suggest distant space.

Exhibition History

• Paragons of Wisdom and Virtue: East Asian Figure Painting, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 02/15/1997 - 09/21/1997
• 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/17/2017 - 05/08/2017

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