The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 3, 2023

Zhongli Quan Crossing the Ocean

鍾離權過海圖

1368–1644

Zhao Qi 趙麒

(Chinese, active early 1500s)

China, Ming dynasty

(1368–1644)

Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk

Image: 135 x 57.5 cm (53 1/8 x 22 5/8 in.); Overall: 233 x 71.6 cm (91 3/4 x 28 3/16 in.); with knobs: 233 x 77.5 cm (91 3/4 x 30 1/2 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1976.13

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Zhongli Quan wears a girdle of leaves, a common Daoist immortal-recluse attribute.

Description

Here, Zhongli Quan is crossing the ocean. He is one of the Eight Immortals (baxian), a group of popular Daoist figures who understood the way of life and could transform into otherworldly beings. Zhongli Quan is usually depicted as a scholar with a big belly seen through his partially open robe. The artist used expressive brushwork to depict the immortal’s fluttering robe and the roaring waves, skillfully creating a sense of movement.

This scroll may have been one of a set depicting the Eight Immortals. Although the painting has no signature or seal, its style supports an attribution to the Ming dynasty painter Zhao Qi.

Zhao Qi

Zhao Qi (active early 1500s) was a Ming dynasty court painter.
Provenance
?-1976
[Yabumoto Kozo 藪本公三 [20th century], Amagasaki, Hyogo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art]
1976-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 347 archive.org
Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman, and Marc F. Wilson. Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1980. Reproduced: cat. no. 132, pp. 154-155
Little, Stephen. Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China : the Cleveland Museum of Art, February 10-April 10, 1988. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1988. Reproduced: pp. 19, 32-33, cat. no. 6
Little, Stephen, and Shawn Eichman. Taoism and the Arts of China. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2000. Reproduced: p. 322, fig. 119
Delacour, Catherine. La Voie du Tao: un Autre Chemin de L'être : Galeries Nationales, Grand Palais, 29 Mars-5 Juillet 2010. Paris: Reunion des Musees Nationaux, 2010. Reproduced: pp. 280-281, cat 72.1
Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. Reproduced: pp. 242-244
Exhibition history

Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 10-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982).

Year in Review, 1976. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 1-March 6, 1977).

Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-April 10, 1988).

Asian Autumn: New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 18-December 31, 1994).

Taoism and the Arts of China. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (November 11, 2000-January 7, 2001); Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (February 21-May 13, 2001).

La voie du Tao, un autre chemin de l'Etre. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 75008 Paris, France (March 29-July 5, 2010).

Escaping to a Better World: Eccentrics and Immortals in Chinese Art (Chinese art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 13-November 6, 2022).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1976.13