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400
400 The first known example dates to the Song The style of the current set suggests that it
A FINE PART-SET OF PAINTINGS Dynasty and is attributed to the artist Lou may have been produced for wealthy locals
DEPICTING SERICULTURE Zhou (1090-1162), with many subsequent rather than expressly for the export market.
Late 18th century editions ordered by the following Emperors. See for example, both in the Beijing Palace
Ink and colour on silk, a part set depicting the Perhaps the most famous edition, which Museum, Anonymous, Late Kangxi Period,
various stages of silk production, including also stimulated a new surge in popularity for ‘Portraits of Prince Yinzhen Engaged in
the selection of the larvae, their feeding, and the genre in the Qing Dynasty, is the Yuzhi Agricultural Activities’, ink and colour on
the sorting of the cocoons. 37.5cm (14 3/4in) Gengzhi Tu, commissioned by Emperor silk, set of 52 illustrated by Wei Dong, Qing
x 31cm (12 1/8in) (14). Kangxi (1662-1722) and completed in 1696 Imperial ‘Genre Painting’ Art as Pictorial
by the court painter Jiao Bingzhen. It became Record, Orientations, July/August 1995,
£10,000 - 15,000 popular for princes and Emperors to be fig. 2a-d; and ‘Portraits of the Emperor
CNY86,000 - 130,000 HK$100,000 - portrayed whilst engaging in these activities, Yongzheng in Ploughing and Weaving’,
150,000 a trend that may have spread amongst Anonymous, Album of 52 leaves, colour on
other strata of the population as well. The silk, illustrated in The Complete Collection
Intimately connected to the two main pillars genre then gained further momentum with of the Treasures of the Palace Museum:
of Chinese economy, ‘Tales of Tilling and the widening of international trade in the Paintings by the Court Artists of the Qing
Weaving’ were an extremely popular subject following century and the frenzy for exoticism Court, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 11, pp.74-90.
matter for court and private paintings in that had started in Europe and England; Examples of sets made specifically for the
China. Agriculture was mostly carried out by besides wealthy local merchants and gentry, export market are illustrated by Franco and
men, whilst sericulture was the responsibility these paintings started now being acquired Maria Ricci, ed., Cotton and Silk Making in
of women; the depiction of these activities by wealthy middle classes and fashionable Manchu China, Rizzoli, 1960, and by D. S.
was generally regarded as both a reference aristocrats across the oceans. Howard, A Tale of Three Cities, pl.28.
to practical farming and as a metaphor for
a well-ordered Confucian society where A very similar set, probably of the same
everyone abided by their role. hand, was offered in these salerooms on 9
November 2015, lot 242.
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