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Lot Essay
Peaches, because of their association with longevity, were a very popular theme at the Chinese court, and were even painted by the imperial family themselves. The Qianlong Emperor (1736-95), for example, painted peaches on a fan to present to his mother when he accompanied her on a summer trip outside the palace in AD 1771 (see The Qianlong Emperor - Treasures from the Forbidden City, National Museums of Scotland Publishing, Edinburgh, 2002, p. 102, no. 51). Empress Dowager Ci Xi also had peaches included in some of the portraits of herself. One example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, depicts her as the Bodhisattva Guanyin, but she is seated under a peach tree laden with fruit - a Daoist reference to a wish for longevity (illustrated Empress Dowager Cixi - Her Art of Living, Regional Council Hong Kong, 1996, p. 99). A hanging scroll depicting peaches, painted by the Empress Dowager Ci Xi's own hand, bearing her seals and various inscriptions, and dated to the jiawu year of the Guangxu reign, equivalent to 1894, was sold in our Hong Kong rooms on 30 April 2000, lot 616.
Ci Xi was fond of painting and several of her works have survived. A hanging scroll of peonies, painted in 1902, from the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, was included in Empress Dowager Cixi - Her Art of Living, op. cit., p. 93. Another depicting peonies and pine is preserved in the collection of the Shenyang Palace Museum (illustrated in Imperial Life in the Qing Dynasty - Treasures from the Shenyang Palace Museum, China, Empress Place, Singapore, n.d., p. 17). Like the peaches, the subjects of both of these paintings are auspicious. Peonies are regarded as the flowers of riches and honours, while the pine is a symbol of longevity. Another scroll painting by Ci Xi, sold in our Hong Kong rooms 27 April 1997, lot 102, depicts bamboo and prunus. These are two of the 'three friends of winter' and also have auspicious associations.
The current embroidery also employs a very effective pictorial device of showing some of the peaches against a cloud that floats across the central section of the scene. This device also appears in one the Qianlong Emperor's paintings in the Palace Museum, Beijing, depicting the 'three friends of winter' (see Wan Yi, et al., Daily Life in the Forbidden City, trans. R. Scott and E. Shipley, Penguin Books, Middlesex/Viking Penguin, New York, 1988, p. 210, no. 303). In the Qianlong hanging scroll (Fig. 1) the clouds float across the centre of the painting allowing the soft light of the moon to be seen through them.
Another embroidery in the style of a painting, bearing the seals of the Dowager Empress Ci Xi and calligraphic inscriptions, from the collection of the Beijing Art Museum, was exhibited at Christie's New York in the exhibition Treasures from Ancient Beijing, Christie's Education and the Beijing Cultural Relics Bureau, New York, 2000, exhibit 98. Like the current embroidery, the Beijing Art Museum example also depicted auspicious emblems, including pine trees, bats and a golden pheasant. It was dated by inscription to the jiawu year, of the Guangxu reign, equivalent to 1894. It is probable that both embroideries were based upon paintings by Ci Xi's own hand, with which she was particularly pleased, and had been extremely skillfully reproduced in silk by embroiderers in the Imperial workshops.
Ci Xi was fond of painting and several of her works have survived. A hanging scroll of peonies, painted in 1902, from the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, was included in Empress Dowager Cixi - Her Art of Living, op. cit., p. 93. Another depicting peonies and pine is preserved in the collection of the Shenyang Palace Museum (illustrated in Imperial Life in the Qing Dynasty - Treasures from the Shenyang Palace Museum, China, Empress Place, Singapore, n.d., p. 17). Like the peaches, the subjects of both of these paintings are auspicious. Peonies are regarded as the flowers of riches and honours, while the pine is a symbol of longevity. Another scroll painting by Ci Xi, sold in our Hong Kong rooms 27 April 1997, lot 102, depicts bamboo and prunus. These are two of the 'three friends of winter' and also have auspicious associations.
The current embroidery also employs a very effective pictorial device of showing some of the peaches against a cloud that floats across the central section of the scene. This device also appears in one the Qianlong Emperor's paintings in the Palace Museum, Beijing, depicting the 'three friends of winter' (see Wan Yi, et al., Daily Life in the Forbidden City, trans. R. Scott and E. Shipley, Penguin Books, Middlesex/Viking Penguin, New York, 1988, p. 210, no. 303). In the Qianlong hanging scroll (Fig. 1) the clouds float across the centre of the painting allowing the soft light of the moon to be seen through them.
Another embroidery in the style of a painting, bearing the seals of the Dowager Empress Ci Xi and calligraphic inscriptions, from the collection of the Beijing Art Museum, was exhibited at Christie's New York in the exhibition Treasures from Ancient Beijing, Christie's Education and the Beijing Cultural Relics Bureau, New York, 2000, exhibit 98. Like the current embroidery, the Beijing Art Museum example also depicted auspicious emblems, including pine trees, bats and a golden pheasant. It was dated by inscription to the jiawu year, of the Guangxu reign, equivalent to 1894. It is probable that both embroideries were based upon paintings by Ci Xi's own hand, with which she was particularly pleased, and had been extremely skillfully reproduced in silk by embroiderers in the Imperial workshops.