Title: A Portrait of Empress Xiaoshengxian in Court Dress, Circa 1750-1800. An Exceedingly Rare Qing Silk Painting of one of China’s Dowager Empresses, Possibly an Imperial Portrait, or Masterful, Contemporary Copy
Author: Style of the Imperial Court Painters
Condition: Poor
An exceedingly rare Mid Qing Dynasty, mid to late 18th century silk painting, being a portrait of Empress Xiaoshengxian (1692-1777), of the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner Niohuru clan, and consort of Yinzhen, the Yongzheng Emperor. With one of the longest reign periods of even many Emperors, she ruled the Chinese Imperial Harem and remained as the Empress Dowager of the Qing Dynasty for 42 years.
The Empress is adorned in a fur-edged ceremonial costume comprising a full-length robe, known as a chao pao, under a full-length sleeveless vest, or a chao gua, with some rather extravagant shoulder epaulettes, the vest decorated with stylised lingzhi blooms, and five-clawed scaly dragons soaring sinuously amidst more blooms. There are stylised roundels and brightly coloured lishui diagonal stripes, all against a rich blue, the grandeur further highlighted with long beaded necklaces, or chao zhu, and the Empress is wearing a court hat, or chao guan with a black fur brim and a crown decorated with red floss silk tassels and three ornamented gold phoenixes.
A shockingly masterful composition, the painting has been produced with vivid, extravagant detail, from the multihued and carpeted background and golden throne the Empress sits on, to the brilliantly produced court dress of the Empress, her many jewels and adornments, as well as a bejewelled crown with three golden birds. As is expected as Qing paintings of such quality, the facial detail and linework is astonishingly superb, with her years of age displayed, yet showing a softness in her gaze.
As the margins of this painting are lacking, it is difficult to confirm who signed this composition, but it is certainly in the style of the Imperial Court Painters, though the smaller size format does detract from that possibility. Even if it is not though, it is admittedly a masterfully produced, contemporary copy after the court painters.
The composition of painting, from the detailing of the vestments to the carpeted background decoration, is unmistakably identical to that of another painting of the Dowager Empress, being Item 00006455, presently housed at the Beijing Palace Museum. That painting however, depicts a somewhat older Empress, and is larger in format, as should be expected of an Imperially produced painting. Multiple paintings of different Empresses have been produced in the past however, showing different ages. As our composition is very clearly damaged and lacking the additional upper and lower margins, it is possible that this painting may have been larger, but this is difficult to presently confirm.
Consort paintings preceding Empress Dowager Cixi are extremely rare on the market, with the last noted example being the Large Imperial Portrait of Consort Chunhui at the Sotheby’s Sale of October 2015, which hammered for 137,400,000 HKD, or 17,667,708 USD. It should be importantly noted that example was signed by the famed Imperial Painter Giuseppe Castiglione.
Provenance: A Private Japanese Collection
One silk painting, roughly 135 x 70 cm
This painting is in exceedingly poor shape, with numerous tears and damage to the margins and edges, and there are several dozen repairs to the verso. The painting edges are prone to chipping if not handled carefully. There is no mount for the painting. Restoration is highly advised.