Zhongli Quan Crossing the Ocean (1368–1644): Art, History and Details

Zhongli Quan Crossing the Ocean (1368–1644) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Zhao Qi (Chinese, active early 1500s).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Zhongli Quan Crossing the Ocean
• Date: 1368–1644
• Creator attribution: Zhao Qi (Chinese, active early 1500s)
• Culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
• Dimensions: 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.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1976.13

A detail from the museum

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

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
• 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.
• 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.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.