The famous Tang Dynasty poet is shown recumbent beside a large empty yellow wine jar. His pale green robes are decorated with storks and clouds with a red girdle.

Li Bai (701-762) was one of a literary coterie known as the Six Idlers of the Bamboo Brook. In 742 the Emperor Minghuang gave him a sinecure, which gave him time to drink too much and he become known as one of the Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup. He died when falling drunk into the Yangzi River.

Literature: Anthony du Boulay, The Duberly Collection of Chinese Art at Winchester College (Winchester, 2019), p. 89

Provenance: Bequeathed as part of the Duberly Collection, 1978; purchased by Major Montagu and Lady Eileen Duberly from John Sparks, 7 July 1957 (£105)

Location: Treasury, Gallery 2