Fifty years at the same desk, and two lifetimes of work.
Xiang Li paints by hand, one figure at a time. Two collections, finished thirty years apart.
37
Master Artist at Beijing's Palace Museum
413
Dream of the Red Chamber, complete
200+
Painted in gemstone pigments on silk
And a third door — seeing them in person.
Meet Xiang Li and see the paintings in person. Check the exhibition schedule and venue details before planning your visit.
All eventsEmpresses, dynasty by dynasty
From the Han to the Qing — two thousand years of women who shaped an empire, each portrait painted on silk.
202 BC – 220 AD · 21 portrait pages
9 – 23 AD · 1 portrait page
220 – 280 · 6 portrait pages
266 – 420 · 2 portrait pages
420 – 589 · 3 portrait pages
581 – 618 · 2 portrait pages
618 – 907 · 14 portrait pages
907 – 979 · 6 portrait pages
960 – 1279 · 3 portrait pages
1271 – 1368 · 10 portrait pages
1368 – 1644 · 3 portrait pages
1636 – 1912 · 3 portrait pages
Prints & more
The originals stay together. A print can come home with you.
The paintings travel as complete collections rather than being sold off one by one. Prints, canvases, scarves and cards are made from the paintings themselves — the everyday way to live with the work.
Museums, galleries and collectors interested in original works — get in touch.
Chinese Empresses — twelve years of work, in 364 pages
The official volume by Xiang Li & Fei Wu: more than 200 uniquely reimagined empresses, their stories, and the silk paintings that brought them back — now stocked in the Worcester Art Museum gift shop.
$120 · full color · 364 pages · Second edition
From the Palace Museum to New England
For 37 years, Xiang Li reproduced and restored ancient masterpieces inside Beijing's Palace Museum. In 1985 she became the first artist to complete all 413 characters of the classic novel Dream of the Red Chamber — a collection displayed for two decades and praised by Pu Jie, the Last Emperor's brother.
Today she paints in Massachusetts with her daughter Fei Wu, building the Chinese Empresses — and sharing traditional Chinese watercolor with everyone who will love it.
