In the style of Jiang Tingxi (1669-1732)

Description:

China, Qing dynasty
137 x 51,3 cm (155 x 64 cm R.)
Auspicious radish and lingzhi mushroom. Ink and colours on silk, framed under glass. Signature of the artist: "Honourably painted by the subject Jiang Tingxi, Scholar of the Inner Cabinet and Vice Minister ..." Two seals of the artist: "The subject Tingxi" (chen Tingxi), "Reverently painted" (gong hua). At the top a long inscription by the Hanlin scholar at the imperial court, Liang Shizheng (1697-1763), in which he describes the two auspicious plants from the imperial garden from 1725.
Collection Klauf Nierhoff (1926 - 2011), acquired on 4 October 1963 from Editha Leppich in Köln (collection registration and old inscription preserved)
Two collection seals of the imperial collection: "Garden of Silent Contentment" (Jingyiyuan), "Pictures and Bücher of the Inner Court" (Neifu tushu). Both not original. The jade seal of the 'Garden of Tranquil Contentment' is now in the collection of the Museum of East Asian Art in Köln. It is one of the numerous palace hall seals that document the respective location of a painting, in this case a summer palace in the 'Fragrant Mountains' (Xiangshan) west of Beijing. Jiang Tingxi came from Changshu in Jiangsu Province and was a scholar and court painter under the emperors Kangxi (1662-1722) and Yongzheng (1723-1735). Under the latter, he rose to the position of vice-president of the Office of Rites. He was particularly famous for his naturalistic depictions of flowers, with one of his cross-scrolls showing 66 different species. The lifelike and accurate depiction of the two plants in this painting also reveals a certain botanical interest and pleasure in scientific description. It also shows the influence of European painting which was taught by Guiseppe Castiglione at the imperial court. - Very minor traces of age