Page 136 - Christie's London China Trade Paintings Kelton Collection

*107
CHINESE SCHOOL, AFTER 1864
The Taiping Rebellion – a set of ten battle scenes
pencil, pen and ink, watercolour and bodycolour, heightened with white on paper
each 21æ x 35ºin. (55.4 x 89.5cm.) (10)
£30,000-40,000 US$37,000-49,000
€34,000-45,000
PROVENANCE:
Chaoying Fan.
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, New York, 10 April 1986, lot 40.

EXHIBITED:
Hong Kong, Hong Kong Maritime Museum, The Dragon and the Eagle: American Traders in China, A Century of Trade from 1784 to
1900, Dec. 2019-April 2019, no.5.14 (six from the set of ten).
LITERATURE:
B. Smith and Wan-go Wen, China: A History in Art, New York, 1972, pp.270-71.
The Taiping Rebellion was the bloodiest war of the 19th century, waged from 1850 to 1864 between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
(a religious, nationalist and political movement led out of Guangxi by Hong Xiuquan, the heterodox Christian convert and self-
proclaimed brother of Jesus Christ) and the ruling Manchu led Qing dynasty. At their height the rebels, based in Tianjing (Nanjing),
had control of much of southern China and ruled over 30 million people. Unable to take the Qing capital of Beijing, the Taipings
were eventually defeated by the Xiang army of Zeng Guofan, Nanjing falling to them in July 1864 after a two-year siege.
The Taiping army typically wore a uniform of red jackets and blue trousers and wore their hair long. The army was two million
strong, made up of Hakka, Cantonese and Zhuang, and consisted of corps of around 13,000 men. The Qing forces had over one
million regulars (the Han Green Standard Army and the Manchu-Mongol-Han Eight Banner armies) supported by regional militias
(such as Zeng Guofan's Xiang or Hunan army) and foreign mercenaries. Their elite force was called the Ever Victorious Army, led by
European commanders.

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fee are also payable if the lot has a tax or λ symbol. Check Section D of the Conditions of Sale at the back of this catalogue.