Lot Essay
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. It is probable that these 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. See a comparable embroidery panel, sold in Christie's London, 7 November 2006, lot 73.