id: 148814 accession number: 1976.60.b share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1976.60.b updated: 2023-08-23 22:33:42.008000 Figure of Daoist Immortal He Xiangu (base), 1700s. China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Colored ivory; overall: 13.5 cm (5 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 1976.60.b title: Figure of Daoist Immortal He Xiangu (base) title in original language: 黃楊木雕何仙姑泛舟 series: series in original language: creation date: 1700s creation date earliest: 1700 creation date latest: 1799 current location: creditline: Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund copyright: --- culture: China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911) technique: Colored ivory department: Chinese Art collection: China - Qing Dynasty type: Wood find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 13.5 cm (5 5/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review, 1976 opening date: 1977-02-01T05:00:00 Year in Review, 1976. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 1-March 6, 1977). title: Scholar's Studio opening date: 1989-09-19T04:00:00 Scholar's Studio. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 19-December 17, 1989). title: China through the Magnifying Glass: Masterpieces in Miniature and Detail opening date: 2022-12-11T05:00:00 China through the Magnifying Glass: Masterpieces in Miniature and Detail. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 11, 2022-February 26, 2023). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-April 10, 1988). * Main Asian Gallery Rotation (Gallery 122). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (May 30, 1999-April 7, 2004). --- PROVENANCE (Tokyo Gallery Limited, London, England, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: ?–1970 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1970– footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: He Xiangu's boat rests on a wave-shaped base carved from ivory that has been dyed green. digital description: wall description: He Xiangu is one of the Eight Immortals in the Daoist pantheon. She was thought have been a real person who lived in the Tang dynasty, originally named He Qiong. As a teenager, she was instructed in a dream to eat powdered mica to become immune from death and to vow to remain unmarried. She did so and became an enlightened practitioner of Daoism.

In this delicate carving, He Xiangu is placidly seated in a gnarled and knotty wooden raft amid green-tinted ivory waves. In front of her rests a bamboo basket filled with objects associated with Daoist immortality, while she holds a branch of lingzhi fungus. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1976.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64, no. 2 (February 1977): 39–78. page number: Mentioned: p. 79, no. 167; Reproduced: p. 65, no. 167 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25152676 Little, Stephen. Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China: the Cleveland Museum of Art, February 10-April 10, 1988. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1988. page number: cat. no. 15, p. 43 url: Watson, William, and Chuimei Ho. The Arts of China After 1620. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 116, fig. 135 url: Spee, Clarissa von. "Arts of Asia fiftieth anniversary: featuring fifty favorite objects: selected by experts in the Asian art world." Arts of Asia 50, no. 1 (January/February 2020): 57–110. page number: Reproduced: p. 106; Mentioned: p. 106 url: Spee, Clarissa von. “Four Curators, Four Favorites.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 62, no. 2 (2022): 31. page number: Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 31 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1976.60.b/1976.60.b_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1976.60.b/1976.60.b_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1976.60.b/1976.60.b_full.tif