The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 26, 2024
Operating on Guan Yu's Arm
1840s
(Japanese, c. 1800-after 1857)
Mounted: 206.7 x 73.1 cm (81 3/8 x 28 3/4 in.); Painting: 140.2 x 68.3 cm (55 3/16 x 26 7/8 in.)
Kelvin Smith Fund 1998.178
Location: not on view
Did You Know?
This is the largest surviving painting by the artist.Description
Ukiyo-e artists’ subject matter extended to popular literature. Katsushika Ōi used color to great effect in her gruesome version of an episode from a 14th-century Chinese novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Ōi portrayed the passage in which legendary 3rd-century military leader Guan Yu undergoes a bone scraping to remove poisons received from an arrow wound. In this sensationalist portrayal, Guan Yu’s attendants cower at the sight of his bloody arm while he remains unflinchingly focused on his game. As a woman, Ōi was an outlier in her era, but her talent was allowed to shine due to collaboration with her father, Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), the famed designer of the print known as The Great Wave.- before 1998Yamagata HatsutaroOctober 27, 1998(Christie's New York, "An Important Collection of Japanese Ukiyo-e Paintings," 27 October 1998, lot 84, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)1998–The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
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- Japan's Floating World (Japanese art rotation) 235. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (April 8-October 9, 2022).Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meisaku ten. Isetan Department Store, Tokyo, Japan (January 19–26, 1957).Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave. The British Museum, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (May 25-August 13, 2017); Abeno Harukas Art Museum, Osaka, Japan (October 6-November 19, 2017).Asian Games: The Art of Contest. The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (October 14, 2004-February 5, 2005); National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC (February 26-May 15, 2005).Japanese Gallery 121 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (May 4–August 11, 2000).Japanese Gallery 103 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 20, 1998–March 15, 1999).Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin ten [肉筆浮世絵名品展 = Exhibition of masterpieces of ukiyo-e painting]. Itabashi Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (April 8–May 7, 1989).Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin ten: Azabu bijutsukan shozo [Ukiyo-e Painting Masterpieces in the Collection of the Azabu Museum of Art]. Sendai City Museum, Sendai, Japan (June 11–July 17, 1988); Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan (September 6–October 9, 1988); Sogo Museum, Yokohama, Japan (October 20–November 13, 1988).Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meisaku ten: Orinpikku Tokyo taikai kinen [The exhibition of ukiyoe hand-paintings [sic]: In commemoration of the Tokyo Olympics]. Isetan Department Store, Tokyo, Japan (October 8–18, 1964).
- {{cite web|title=Operating on Guan Yu's Arm|url=false|author=Katsushika Ōi|year=1840s|access-date=26 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1998.178