Li Xia

Author: Liang Guiyuan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: Li Xia (1871-1938), styled Yunxian, also known as Suishi Zi, was a native of Xianyou County. In her youth, she studied painting under her uncle (an elderly craftsman in carving) and created murals for temples. At the age of 16, she began earning a living by selling paintings. In 1908, her masterpiece "Mago Pouring Wine" gained her fame in Beijing's Forbidden City, earning her the nickname "Mago Li." In 1910, she held personal exhibitions in Nanjing and Shanghai, causing a sensation at the time. In 1914, her renowned work "Eighteen Arhats Crossing the River" was selected to participate in the Panama Global Exposition, where it won an Excellence Medal. In 1923, her painting "Crossing the Han Pass on a Bull" also received an Excellence Medal at the New York competition. The famous Chinese painter Wu Changshuo once wrote highly praising Li Xia's paintings, calling her a contemporary "master of figure painting."