The Chinese Explorer Zhang Qian on a Raft
Maejima Sōyū Japanese
Not on view
This bearded Chinese gentleman engaged in a most unlikely endeavor—white-water rafting—is Zhang Qian (Japanese: Chōken), a legendary explorer of the second century B.C. Zhang was immortalized in a Yuan-dynasty poem that tells of his riding a log raft to the source of the Yellow River, only to find himself floating in the Milky Way. This painting is one of the works most reliably attributed to Maejima Sōyū, a painter active in the Kantō region of eastern Japan.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
