A catalogue of Chinese paintings from the Reyes Collection by Shelagh Vainker (published Oxford, 1996).
Magu is a female immortal related to longevity in Chinese mythology. It is said that she looks young and pretty even though she has seen the sea become land three times, a concept which signals the passage of time. Here she is depicted as a Tang dynasty figure, although she is painted in a sweeping calligraphic style rather than in the fine conventions of Tang figure painting.
Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 24 September-1 December 1996, Modern Chinese Paintings: The Reyes Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Vainker, Shelagh (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1996), no. 104 on p. 77, p. 9, illus. p. 76 fig. 104
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