One of China’s most famous and priceless paintings, “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” (qingming shanghe tu 清明上河图) is now on display at the Hong Kong Museum of Art. The painting is on loan from the Beijing government as part of the celebration for the tenth anniversary of Hong Kong’s return.
The NYT has a great article neatly summarizing the sometimes wild history of the painting:
“Qingming Festival” has been famous since the 14th century, when forgeries began to circulate, said Tang Hing-sun, an assistant curator of the Hong Kong Museum of Art who helped organize the exhibition here.
Forgers could pass off their copies as the original partly because the original was repeatedly stolen or misappropriated from the imperial collection, starting as early as the 1340s. It kept showing up in the hands of wealthy, influential families, from whom emperors repeatedly recovered it when they confiscated estates during disputes.
Qiu Ying, a 16th-century artist, established a reputation for painting beautiful copies of “Qingming Festival,” prompting forgers even to begin producing forgeries of his copies.
The Nationalists moved the cream of the imperial collection to Taiwan shortly before losing the civil war to the Communists in 1949. But through a quirk of history, “Qingming Festival” had been separated from the rest of the collection and stayed on the mainland.
The last emperor, Pu Yi, quietly took the painting with him when forced to leave the Forbidden City in 1924. The Japanese military later installed him as the puppet ruler of Manchuria; caught by the Soviet Army at the end of World War II, he still had the painting.
The Soviets handed over the painting to a bank in northeastern China for safekeeping. It stayed there until 1950, when it was transferred to a nearby museum and later to Beijing.
With such a convoluted history, there is the theoretical possibility that a forgery was substituted at some point. The National Palace Museum in Taipei takes pride in holding 10 ancient copies of the original “Qingming Festival” in its collection.
But art scholars agree that the Palace Museum in Beijing does indeed own the original. The style and materials of the scroll — ink on silk — are consistent with work from the 12th century, and the many chops, or seals, of its owners over the years are accurate.
I’m pretty pathetic when it comes to art history, so I’m taking their word for it.
The original is attributed to 12th century painter Zhang Zeduan and is a little over 5 meters long. A later version, painted in 1736, measures over 10 meters.
Overall, 32 other priceless works of art complete the exhibition in Hong Kong and will be on display through July 22.
An online and interactive version of a later edition of the Qingming Shanghe tu can be found here.
My dream if i can visit to zhang boju house. I want to sell my collection, painting Qing Ming Shanghe Tu scroll painting, but i’m not sure for made year 1945 by Emperor Pu Yi or by NPM 1960. In the painting a 10 seal or Xi. I want to know price my painting. Call me if you want to see and buy this painting. I’m really sure this old and original painting. Thank’s