Collection

Seiobo, c. 1705

Ogata Korin, Japanese


Seiobo is the Japanese name for the Chinese Taoist immortal, Xiwangmu, the Queen Mother of the West. According to legend, the garden of her residence had trees that once every three thousand years bore the peaches of immortality—fruits that conferred longevity on all those fortunate enough to taste them. Korin has depicted Seiobo as a noble matron in the style of a Chinese beauty. This interpretation may have been inspired by the appearance of Chinese court ladies in seventeenth-century genre screen paintings of the day.

Provenance

Provenance

Hosomi collection, Japan, by 1962;

(Ellsworth & Goldie, Ltd., New York), by 1967;

purchased by Kimbell Art Foundation, Fort Worth, 1967.