Queen Mother of the West
Mori Kansai, Queen Mother of the West, 1853, ink and color on silk, Museum Purchase: Funds provided by the Asian Art Council, public domain, 2008.19.4
This work is not currently on view.
- Title
Queen Mother of the West
- Related Titles
original language: 西王母図
- Artist
- Date
1853
- Medium
ink and color on silk
- Dimensions (H x W x D)
image: 44 3/8 in x 16 3/4 in
- Inscriptions & Markings
seal: Kansai no jude
seal: Tachibana Kōshuku
signature: Kichu no Natsu sha su. Kansai Mori Kōshuku, scroll Translation: Painted by Mori Kansai Kōshuku in the summer of the water-ox year [1853]
- Collection Area
Asian Art
- Category
Paintings
- Object Type
hanging scroll
- Culture
Japanese
- Credit Line
Museum Purchase: Funds provided by the Asian Art Council
- Accession Number
2008.19.4
- Copyright
public domain
- Terms
In Chinese Daoist mythology, the Queen Mother of the West is the Goddess of Immortality. She presides over a paradise where the peaches of immortality ripen once every three thousand years. The cult of the Queen Mother of the West reached its peak during the Han Dynasty (2nd century BCE–2nd century CE), but her legend remained a topic for poets and artists thereafter for many centuries.
This painting, made in Japan in the mid-nineteenth century, has no religious overtones; the subject is largely an excuse to paint the ideal Chinese beauty.
