JIANG TINGXI (1669-1732) - photo 1
JIANG TINGXI (1669-1732) - photo 2
JIANG TINGXI (1669-1732) - photo 3
JIANG TINGXI (1669-1732) - photo 4
JIANG TINGXI (1669-1732) - photo 5
JIANG TINGXI (1669-1732) - photo 6
JIANG TINGXI (1669-1732) - photo 7

JIANG TINGXI (1669-1732)

Lot 867
02.12.2023 10:30UTC +08:00
Classic
Sold
HKD 4 410 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationHong Kong, Hong Kong
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 1086739
Lot 867 | JIANG TINGXI (1669-1732)
Estimate value
HKD 4 000 000 – 6 000 000
JIANG TINGXI (1669-1732)

An Imperial Manual of Birds – Roosters

A set of six album leaves, framed, ink and colour on silk

Each album leaf measures 40.5 x 41 cm. (16 x 16 1⁄8 in.)

(6)With a total of twelve seals of the artist

Titleslip on the right of each album leaf





Provenance

Charles Blair (1856-1943) collection.

Lot 2528, 8 October 2021, Fine Classical Chinese Paintings, Sotheby’s Hong Kong.



Literature

Combined Catalogues of the Qing Imperial Collection Volume 2: Catalogue of the Paintings and Calligraphy in the Imperial Collection, Shanghai Bookstore, Shanghai, October 1988, p.861.



Further details

Fusing Chinese and Western Styles: Jiang Tingxi’s Painting Techniques in Imperial Manual of Birds - Roosters

During Kangxi Emperor’s reign in early Qing, missionaries such as Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) and Ignatius Silchelbart (1708-1780) arrived in China, bringing with them new insights in science, art, and mathematics that greatly differed from traditional Chinese values. Western paintings emphasize form and realism, yet have little character or resonance with the spirit, making the style incompatible with Chinese traditional theories and techniques and hence, seldomly used in the Qing court.
Nevertheless, a few painters adopted some of the Western painting techniques and incorporated them into Chinese painting, with Jiang Tingxi (1669-1732) being one of the best.
A native of Changshu, Jiangsu Province, Jiang came from one of the eight gentry families. He attained jinshi in 1703 and became one of the most important Hanlin Academy painters during Kangxi’s reign. Jiang acquired mogu (boneless) painting technique from his close friend Ma Yuanyu (1699-1722), a disciple of Yun Shouping’s (1633-1690), and later was influenced by the Western painting style while working in the Qing court.
Documented in Shiqu Baoji Volume II, Imperial Manual of Birds - Roosters portray different chicken species across China. The slopes, stones, flowers, and insects are rendered in the Chinese method using elegant and light colours, while the crowns, beaks, feathers, and claws of the roosters are depicted vividly using fine brushwork, bright colours and chiaroscuro techniques.
During the fifteenth year of Qianlong’s reign (1750), the Emperor commissioned court painters Yu Sheng and Zhang Weibang to copy Jiang Tingxi’s Imperial Manual of Birds into twelve albums. Jiang was born in the Year of the Rooster, and his courtesy name, Youjun, is also related to the bird. No wonder these six leaves were exquisitely painted, fusing successfully the essence of both Chinese and Western styles.
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