Decade 1650-1659
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Rembrandt Early still life Early Qing Islam Persia Textiles Safavid carpets
See also : Rembrandt Early still life Early Qing Islam Persia Textiles Safavid carpets
Safavid - The Béhague Carpet
2010 SOLD for £ 6.2M by Christie's
A Kirman carpet was released from anonymity on April 15, 2010 at a Christie's sale in London when it was sold for £ 6.2M from a lower estimate of £ 200K, lot 100. The press revealed that it had been sold six months earlier in Augsburg from an estimate of € 800 by a local auctioneer who refused to publish the result.
This wool carpet is knotted using the intricate Vase technique, suggesting that it was woven in the royal workshops of the Safavid dynasty. It measures 339 x 153 cm and is in outstanding condition except for a few tiny repairs and some corrosion of the black threads. It had been commented in 1938 by an expert who stated for its provenance the prestigious collection of the comtesse de Béhague.
The golden age of Kirman carpets is the reign of Abbas I, who died in 1629 CE. The Béhague carpet is characterized by a very elegant simplification of shapes that Christie's positions around the mid-17th century.
In a magnificent geometric regularity, parallel stems support several pairs of leaves. From top to bottom, the leaves of one stem alternate with the leaves from the adjacent stem. Tiny flowers are inserted into the spaces between the leaves. This decoration anticipates the repetition of flowers and leaves in the highly popular Herati pattern and may evoke some figures from the Iznik ceramics.
This wool carpet is knotted using the intricate Vase technique, suggesting that it was woven in the royal workshops of the Safavid dynasty. It measures 339 x 153 cm and is in outstanding condition except for a few tiny repairs and some corrosion of the black threads. It had been commented in 1938 by an expert who stated for its provenance the prestigious collection of the comtesse de Béhague.
The golden age of Kirman carpets is the reign of Abbas I, who died in 1629 CE. The Béhague carpet is characterized by a very elegant simplification of shapes that Christie's positions around the mid-17th century.
In a magnificent geometric regularity, parallel stems support several pairs of leaves. From top to bottom, the leaves of one stem alternate with the leaves from the adjacent stem. Tiny flowers are inserted into the spaces between the leaves. This decoration anticipates the repetition of flowers and leaves in the highly popular Herati pattern and may evoke some figures from the Iznik ceramics.
1650 Mughal Silk Woven Pashmina Carpet
2022 SOLD for £ 5.4M by Christie's
From the early 17th century, some English visitors to the Mughal empire used to commission magnificent carpets to decorate their luxury houses.
The earlier designs were based on Persian carpets. Around 1650 the fashion for Mughal carpets of North India began to be a lattice with floral forms enclosed within each compartment. The flower had been introduced in Indian art in 1620 when Jahangir, delighted by a spring visit in Kashmir, required painted herbals.
An early carpet in splendid although incomplete condition with a large scale lattice was sold for £ 5.4M from a lower estimate of £ 2.5M by Christie's on October 27, 2022, lot 200. The weave is extremely fine with an average of 672 knots per square inch. It has been shortened from about 440 cm long to a 275 cm square, arguably to get rid of damaged areas. Three additional fragments are known. The fringes are missing.
It is made over a silk foundation of a pile of pashmina wool of Himalayan goat woven with silk warp and weft. The warp threads are blue, green, red and ivory, and the weft is scarlet red. The pile is a deep and brilliant crimson red.
The cartouches formed by twisting leafy vines enclose blooming flowers. The edge is made of similar patterns.
The earlier designs were based on Persian carpets. Around 1650 the fashion for Mughal carpets of North India began to be a lattice with floral forms enclosed within each compartment. The flower had been introduced in Indian art in 1620 when Jahangir, delighted by a spring visit in Kashmir, required painted herbals.
An early carpet in splendid although incomplete condition with a large scale lattice was sold for £ 5.4M from a lower estimate of £ 2.5M by Christie's on October 27, 2022, lot 200. The weave is extremely fine with an average of 672 knots per square inch. It has been shortened from about 440 cm long to a 275 cm square, arguably to get rid of damaged areas. Three additional fragments are known. The fringes are missing.
It is made over a silk foundation of a pile of pashmina wool of Himalayan goat woven with silk warp and weft. The warp threads are blue, green, red and ivory, and the weft is scarlet red. The pile is a deep and brilliant crimson red.
The cartouches formed by twisting leafy vines enclose blooming flowers. The edge is made of similar patterns.
1650 VELAZQUEZ in Rome
1
masterpiece
Juan de Pareja
Metropolitan Museum
The skills of Diego Velazquez are recognized in the court of King Felipe IV who names him ayuda de camara (valet) in 1643 and superintendente de obras (superintendent of works) in the following year. Having thus become one of the closest collaborators of the king, he requests and obtains a mission in Italy to acquire paintings and sculptures worthy of the royal collection.
He left Malaga in 1649, visited Genoa, Milan, Venice and Modena, buying in passing important works by Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese. At the beginning of 1650 he was in Rome where he could take care of his own career. A previous stay in Italy in 1629-1630 had much contributed to his artistic training but he was still unknown in that country when he arrived in Rome.
He is accompanied by his slave Juan de Pareja, who is his preparer of colors. Aged about 44, Juan de Pareja is a mulatto with a Moorish dominance.
Velazquez has a great intuition. To assess that his expertise meets his reputation, he paints a portrait of his slave, to whom he commissions the demonstration of the result to a few selected friends. The truth of the portrait is breathtaking. The painting is exhibited in the Pantheon on March 19, 1650 for the feast of Saint Joseph, an extraordinary honor when considering that the work had just been completed. The Romans were dazzled by the physical and psychological resemblance between man and painting.
Velazquez was not only a painter of worldly portraits. He knew to give dignity to men whatever their social condition. Juan's gaze is proud and straight. He will have his reward : freed a few months later with a probation period, he will use his own painting skills to become one of Velazquez's best assistants.
The portrait of Juan de Pareja, oil on canvas 81 x 70 cm, was sold on November 27, 1970 by Christie's for £ 2.3M, worth US $ 5.5M at that time. It was purchased at that sale by Wildenstein acting for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met raises the necessary funds after a call for donations to the Friends of the Museum and acquires this masterpiece in 1971. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
He left Malaga in 1649, visited Genoa, Milan, Venice and Modena, buying in passing important works by Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese. At the beginning of 1650 he was in Rome where he could take care of his own career. A previous stay in Italy in 1629-1630 had much contributed to his artistic training but he was still unknown in that country when he arrived in Rome.
He is accompanied by his slave Juan de Pareja, who is his preparer of colors. Aged about 44, Juan de Pareja is a mulatto with a Moorish dominance.
Velazquez has a great intuition. To assess that his expertise meets his reputation, he paints a portrait of his slave, to whom he commissions the demonstration of the result to a few selected friends. The truth of the portrait is breathtaking. The painting is exhibited in the Pantheon on March 19, 1650 for the feast of Saint Joseph, an extraordinary honor when considering that the work had just been completed. The Romans were dazzled by the physical and psychological resemblance between man and painting.
Velazquez was not only a painter of worldly portraits. He knew to give dignity to men whatever their social condition. Juan's gaze is proud and straight. He will have his reward : freed a few months later with a probation period, he will use his own painting skills to become one of Velazquez's best assistants.
The portrait of Juan de Pareja, oil on canvas 81 x 70 cm, was sold on November 27, 1970 by Christie's for £ 2.3M, worth US $ 5.5M at that time. It was purchased at that sale by Wildenstein acting for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met raises the necessary funds after a call for donations to the Friends of the Museum and acquires this masterpiece in 1971. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
2
masterpiece
Pope Innocent X
Doria Pamphilj Gallery
The first stay of Velazquez in Italy in 1629-1630 had much contributed to his artistic training but he was still unknown in that country when he arrived in Rome in 1649. He immediately portrayed his assistant, the mulatto slave Juan de Pareja. The Romans were dazzled by the physical and psychological resemblance between man and painting. Velazquez is the best portraitist of his time, or even of all time.
The doors open wide for Velazquez. In August 1650 Pope Innocent X sits for him. The artist wants to do better than Titian and takes a great care in the attitude and in the colors. Admiring the masterpiece, the pope famously says : "Troppo vero".
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The doors open wide for Velazquez. In August 1650 Pope Innocent X sits for him. The artist wants to do better than Titian and takes a great care in the attitude and in the colors. Admiring the masterpiece, the pope famously says : "Troppo vero".
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1650 Sunrise on a Roman Seaport by Le Lorrain
2013 SOLD for £ 5M by Christie's
Claude Gellée, whose artist name is Le Lorrain, is a contemporary of Poussin. Both are working in Rome, the capital of the arts, but their vision is different. Lorrain is not a mystic. He is interested in landscapes in extreme daylights.
On December 3, 2013, Christie's sold for £ 5M from a lower estimate of £ 3M an oil on canvas 101 x 135 cm, recently rediscovered after having remained out of sight for more than a century.
This painting was done in 1650 on order of a cardinal. The artist honors a local saint: during the reign of the pious emperor Theodosius, a woman named Paula left Rome to live the hermit adventure under the direction of Jerome who is indeed the only recorder of her hagiography.
From the perspective of Christian iconography this action is not spectacular, but the sunrise on a fancy Mediterranean seaport is sumptuous. Much later, Turner complacently recognized the considerable influence of Lorrain on his own vision.
The antique columns that close the left edge of the picture anticipate by more than half a century the fashion of the Roman capricci and the tall ships are worthy of a van de Velde.
On December 3, 2013, Christie's sold for £ 5M from a lower estimate of £ 3M an oil on canvas 101 x 135 cm, recently rediscovered after having remained out of sight for more than a century.
This painting was done in 1650 on order of a cardinal. The artist honors a local saint: during the reign of the pious emperor Theodosius, a woman named Paula left Rome to live the hermit adventure under the direction of Jerome who is indeed the only recorder of her hagiography.
From the perspective of Christian iconography this action is not spectacular, but the sunrise on a fancy Mediterranean seaport is sumptuous. Much later, Turner complacently recognized the considerable influence of Lorrain on his own vision.
The antique columns that close the left edge of the picture anticipate by more than half a century the fashion of the Roman capricci and the tall ships are worthy of a van de Velde.
1651 King David by Guercino
2010 SOLD for £ 5.2M by Christie's
Born in Italy but masterfully continued by Rubens, the Baroque art is rooted in an unconditional Christianity which is however questioning other sources of mysticism.
Guercino, who works in Bologna, is a typical Italian painter of this movement. We discussed him recently in this column, illustrating a Tasso's theme about the impossible relationship between Christians and Muslims during the Crusades. His work is characterized by the emotion in the action, and catches the eyes through the quality of colors.
In 1651, in the purest Baroque trend, an Italian knight places an order to him for a pair of paintings, a Prophet and a Sibyl. The prophet will be King David, considered in the Bible as the ancestor of Christ. The Sibyl is a classical theme recovered from paganism, by the fact that their exegetes saw Christian announcements in some of their words.
The pair of paintings came in 1768 to adorn Spencer House, the London residence of the rich and powerful family who wanted to be the arbiter of taste. On July 6, 2010, Lord Spencer and his trustees consigned to Christie's the King David of Guercinon.
This large oil on canvas, 223 x 170 cm, shows the Hebrew prophet in his middle age, seated, calm and dignified, displaying a tablet with a text of the Psalms. It was sold for £ 5.2M.
Guercino, who works in Bologna, is a typical Italian painter of this movement. We discussed him recently in this column, illustrating a Tasso's theme about the impossible relationship between Christians and Muslims during the Crusades. His work is characterized by the emotion in the action, and catches the eyes through the quality of colors.
In 1651, in the purest Baroque trend, an Italian knight places an order to him for a pair of paintings, a Prophet and a Sibyl. The prophet will be King David, considered in the Bible as the ancestor of Christ. The Sibyl is a classical theme recovered from paganism, by the fact that their exegetes saw Christian announcements in some of their words.
The pair of paintings came in 1768 to adorn Spencer House, the London residence of the rich and powerful family who wanted to be the arbiter of taste. On July 6, 2010, Lord Spencer and his trustees consigned to Christie's the King David of Guercinon.
This large oil on canvas, 223 x 170 cm, shows the Hebrew prophet in his middle age, seated, calm and dignified, displaying a tablet with a text of the Psalms. It was sold for £ 5.2M.
mid 1650s A Calm by Willem van de Velde II
2012 SOLD for £ 4.1M by Christie's
Willem van de Velde II began his career in the early 1650s under the influence of Simon de Vlieger at Weesp in the vicinity of Amsterdam.
On July 3, 2012, Christie's sold for £ 4.1M from a lower estimate of £ 2.5M A Calm, lot 18. The scene features a smalschip and a kaag with a man-of-war beyond. It may be dated in the mid 1650s by comparison with the calm marines by de Vlieger's friend Jan van de Cappelle. Willem II was working at that time in Amsterdam in the studio of his father Willem I of pen painting fame.
The exceptional condition of this oil on panel 51 x 45 cm maintains the bright atmosphere of a summer day on the water under airy voluminous clouds. The compared sizes of the boats provide an illusion of increasing distance. The calm weather enables a sharp reflection of the boats in the water. A thick paint over a specific preparation of the panel adds to the smoothness of that scenery.
On July 3, 2012, Christie's sold for £ 4.1M from a lower estimate of £ 2.5M A Calm, lot 18. The scene features a smalschip and a kaag with a man-of-war beyond. It may be dated in the mid 1650s by comparison with the calm marines by de Vlieger's friend Jan van de Cappelle. Willem II was working at that time in Amsterdam in the studio of his father Willem I of pen painting fame.
The exceptional condition of this oil on panel 51 x 45 cm maintains the bright atmosphere of a summer day on the water under airy voluminous clouds. The compared sizes of the boats provide an illusion of increasing distance. The calm weather enables a sharp reflection of the boats in the water. A thick paint over a specific preparation of the panel adds to the smoothness of that scenery.
1653-1657 Young Woman holding a Hare by Dou
2023 SOLD for $ 7.1M by Christie's
Gerrit Dou, who also signed as Dov, has devoted his life to his art, painting. After being one of the best collaborators of Rembrandt, he worked in Leiden. He was so meticulous that he finished, they say, some of his paintings with a magnifying glass. He preferred working on panel to avoid the grain of a canvas. He specialized in genre scenes of daily tasks.
On May 12, 2012, Lempertz sold for € 3.8M an allegory of painting signed by Dov in 1649, lot 1258. Sizing 68 x 53 cm, it is one of the largest works by the artist.
The old painter is installed in front of an easel, focused on his work. This is not a self-portrait : the artist was then 36 years old. Various sources of inspiration are arranged around him. Nature is represented by a big dead peacock, poetry by a flying Eros, knowledge by a book, art by a bust, interior scene by a metal pot and a heavy curtain. The workshop is beautifully lit, assessing the influence of Rembrandt.
The trompe-l'oeil arched window ledge is a preferred arrangement by the artist. On October 11, 2023, Christie's sold a painting staging a young woman, possibly a servant, holding a hare by its hind legs for hanging it at the hook with a boy attending.
The scene includes a tabletop in the foreground with a profusion of elements including a large basket of apples. By comparison of these reused figures with dated works, it may be dated between 1653 and 1657. No allegorical meaning is found and this work was possibly intended to demonstrate the skill of the artist in still lifes.
This oil on panel 53 x 38 cm was sold for $ 7.1M from a lower estimate of $ 3M in the sale of a Rothschild collection, lot 21. It had been confiscated by the Nazi to a Rothschild baron, acquired by Göring and restituted in 1946.
On May 12, 2012, Lempertz sold for € 3.8M an allegory of painting signed by Dov in 1649, lot 1258. Sizing 68 x 53 cm, it is one of the largest works by the artist.
The old painter is installed in front of an easel, focused on his work. This is not a self-portrait : the artist was then 36 years old. Various sources of inspiration are arranged around him. Nature is represented by a big dead peacock, poetry by a flying Eros, knowledge by a book, art by a bust, interior scene by a metal pot and a heavy curtain. The workshop is beautifully lit, assessing the influence of Rembrandt.
The trompe-l'oeil arched window ledge is a preferred arrangement by the artist. On October 11, 2023, Christie's sold a painting staging a young woman, possibly a servant, holding a hare by its hind legs for hanging it at the hook with a boy attending.
The scene includes a tabletop in the foreground with a profusion of elements including a large basket of apples. By comparison of these reused figures with dated works, it may be dated between 1653 and 1657. No allegorical meaning is found and this work was possibly intended to demonstrate the skill of the artist in still lifes.
This oil on panel 53 x 38 cm was sold for $ 7.1M from a lower estimate of $ 3M in the sale of a Rothschild collection, lot 21. It had been confiscated by the Nazi to a Rothschild baron, acquired by Göring and restituted in 1946.
1655 Saint Praxedis by Vermeer
2014 SOLD for £ 6.2M by Christie's
Johannes Vermeer began his career in Delft at the best period of Dutch painting. The details of the development of his artistic genius are a mystery. Son of an innkeeper also involved as a merchant of art, he is probably self-taught.
His early works are copies: Diana and her companions from Jacob van Loo, and Christ in the House of Martha and Mary from Erasmus Quellin. The young artist exercised his skills in mythological and Christian themes.
In 1969, the discovery of the ancient unretouched inscription 'Meer 1655' in a copy of a Florentine painting starts a long series of analyzes and assumptions. This oil on canvas 102 x 82 cm on the theme of Saint Praxedis is accepted since 1986 as a genuine Vermeer. The isotopic analysis of lead white pigment later confirmed this attribution.
Lead white enables to compare the location. This color was common and artists did not carry it in their travels. Particles collected in the white of Diana and Praxedis reveal a strictly identical composition.
The ultramarine blue paint in the sky of Praxedis is also interesting because it was a very expensive pigment. Its use by a novice painter is a proof of his commitment to perfection and of his ambition.
The image shows Praxedis wringing a sponge soaked with the blood of a beheaded martyr visible in the background. Her hands clasped in that action also hold a crucifix. This rare and poignant scene has certainly moved Vermeer who had converted to Catholicism when he married two years earlier.
The three works mentioned above are the whole of the known work of Vermeer before he specialized in the contemporary themes that will ensure his glory.
The Saint Praxedis by Vermeer was sold for £ 6.2M by Christie's on July 8, 2014. Please watch the video shared by Christie's. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
His early works are copies: Diana and her companions from Jacob van Loo, and Christ in the House of Martha and Mary from Erasmus Quellin. The young artist exercised his skills in mythological and Christian themes.
In 1969, the discovery of the ancient unretouched inscription 'Meer 1655' in a copy of a Florentine painting starts a long series of analyzes and assumptions. This oil on canvas 102 x 82 cm on the theme of Saint Praxedis is accepted since 1986 as a genuine Vermeer. The isotopic analysis of lead white pigment later confirmed this attribution.
Lead white enables to compare the location. This color was common and artists did not carry it in their travels. Particles collected in the white of Diana and Praxedis reveal a strictly identical composition.
The ultramarine blue paint in the sky of Praxedis is also interesting because it was a very expensive pigment. Its use by a novice painter is a proof of his commitment to perfection and of his ambition.
The image shows Praxedis wringing a sponge soaked with the blood of a beheaded martyr visible in the background. Her hands clasped in that action also hold a crucifix. This rare and poignant scene has certainly moved Vermeer who had converted to Catholicism when he married two years earlier.
The three works mentioned above are the whole of the known work of Vermeer before he specialized in the contemporary themes that will ensure his glory.
The Saint Praxedis by Vermeer was sold for £ 6.2M by Christie's on July 8, 2014. Please watch the video shared by Christie's. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
masterpiece
1656 Las Meninas by Velazquez
Prado
Please watch the video shared by TED-Ed.
masterpiece
1658 De Melkmeid by Vermeer
Rijksmuseum
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1658 Portrait of a Man by Rembrandt
2009 SOLD for £ 20.2M by Christie's
The half length portrait of a man by Rembrandt, oil on canvas 107 x 87 cm painted in 1658, was sold by Christie's for £ 20.2M on December 8, 2009. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
It had not been seen publicly since 1970 and was not included in the major exhibition made by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in 2006 to celebrate the 400 th anniversary of the birth of the artist.
It had not been seen publicly since 1970 and was not included in the major exhibition made by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in 2006 to celebrate the 400 th anniversary of the birth of the artist.
1658 Courtyard of a House in Delft by de Hooch
1992 SOLD for £ 4.4M by Christie's
Working in Delft from 1652 to 1660, Pieter de Hooch was three years the senior of Vermeer. He specialized in quiet domestic scenes with an open doorway. 1658 is his most prolific year in that category.
A charming view dated 1658 of the courtyard of a house in Delft stages a young woman and two men drinking and smoking under an arbour and a little girl with a dog on her lap sitting in a doorway, through which a street with a canal form the background.
This oil with some gold inscriptions on canvas laid down on panel 68 x 58 cm had belonged to the Impératrice Joséphine in la Malmaison. It was sold for £ 4.4M by Christie's on December 11, 1992, lot 104. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
A charming view dated 1658 of the courtyard of a house in Delft stages a young woman and two men drinking and smoking under an arbour and a little girl with a dog on her lap sitting in a doorway, through which a street with a canal form the background.
This oil with some gold inscriptions on canvas laid down on panel 68 x 58 cm had belonged to the Impératrice Joséphine in la Malmaison. It was sold for £ 4.4M by Christie's on December 11, 1992, lot 104. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Landscapes and Calligraphies by Hongren
2021 SOLD for HK$ 128M by Sotheby's
In 1644 CE the fall of the Ming maddened the literati. The Qing are foreigners. What will happen with the Chinese cultural tradition based on the accumulation of styles and knowledge throughout the historical period ? Collusion with the new regime is unthinkable. Zhu Da and Shitao become Buddhist monks.
Jiang Tao participates in the Ming resistance in the south. In 1646, when the situation is desperate, he becomes a monk and seeks the Zen Buddhism in the mountains of Anhui, his native province. His monk name is Hongren meaning Vast Humanity. He will express the infinite tranquility of nature by taking as a master the artist Ni Zan of the later Yuan.
In 1836 CE a traveler found Hongren's abandoned tomb at the foot of a mountain in Anhui and restored it while replanting plum trees, the blossoms of which the hermit painter had so loved. A few months later, one of his friends, who was an antiquarian monk, bought in a shop an album signed and dedicated by Hongren. It is complete except for the last page of calligraphy and they are remounting it while adding colophons.
The 19 x 13 cm album is made up of ten leaves of paintings and nine leaves of calligraphy, plus the colophons. The paintings in inks and colors feature the mountains rising to the sky in the best Chinese pictorial tradition. The scenery includes a few houses but no mankind except for a fisherman in his boat in the third image. The line is thin, with a geometric simplification of the rocks. The calligraphy is a poem from the early Ming period by Shen Zhou. The terminus ante quem is the artist's death around 1664.
It was sold for HK $ 128M from a lower estimate of HK $ 45M by Sotheby's on April 19, 2021, lot 3076. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Hongren (1610–1664), born Jiang Tao and also known as Jianjiang, was a prominent Chinese Buddhist monk and painter during the transition from the Ming to the Qing dynasty. Originally from Shexian in Anhui province, he received a classical education and passed the prefectural civil service examination, positioning him for a bureaucratic career. However, the fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644 disrupted this path; in response to the Manchu conquest, Hongren became a monk, adopting his monastic name and retreating to monasteries around Mount Huangshan. He is recognized as one of the "Four Monks" of the late Ming and early Qing period, alongside Zhu Da (Bada Shanren), Shitao, and Kuncan, all of whom used art as a form of subtle resistance and personal expression amid political upheaval. Hongren lived a reclusive life until his death at age 54, focusing on painting, poetry, and Zen (Chan) Buddhist practice.
His artistic style is defined by sparse, austere landscapes that evoke themes of solitude, detachment, and introspection rooted in Chan Buddhism. Hongren employed dry, angular brushwork with a geometric, almost architectural approach to form, creating compositions that emphasize structural simplicity over elaborate detail. He drew heavy inspiration from the Yuan dynasty master Ni Zan (1306–1374), adopting a linear technique that prioritizes minimalism and spatial clarity, often depicting secluded mountains, valleys, and rivers to symbolize inner peace and defiance against worldly chaos. Works like The Sound of Spring in a Lonely Valley exemplify this, with their refined ink tones and balanced, near-abstract structures.
As the foremost figure of the Anhui (Xin'an) school, centered in southeast China, Hongren's legacy lies in establishing a regional tradition that influenced Qing dynasty painting for generations. His emphasis on geometric abstraction and emotional restraint helped define the Huangshan school, inspiring later artists to explore themes of reclusion and nature's enduring order amid societal turmoil. Hongren's works symbolized loyalist sentiment against the Qing regime, using art as a quiet protest, and his innovative style bridged Ming individualism with Qing formalism, impacting painters like Wang Hui and the broader orthodox school. Today, his paintings are held in major collections, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, underscoring his enduring role in Chinese art history.
Jiang Tao participates in the Ming resistance in the south. In 1646, when the situation is desperate, he becomes a monk and seeks the Zen Buddhism in the mountains of Anhui, his native province. His monk name is Hongren meaning Vast Humanity. He will express the infinite tranquility of nature by taking as a master the artist Ni Zan of the later Yuan.
In 1836 CE a traveler found Hongren's abandoned tomb at the foot of a mountain in Anhui and restored it while replanting plum trees, the blossoms of which the hermit painter had so loved. A few months later, one of his friends, who was an antiquarian monk, bought in a shop an album signed and dedicated by Hongren. It is complete except for the last page of calligraphy and they are remounting it while adding colophons.
The 19 x 13 cm album is made up of ten leaves of paintings and nine leaves of calligraphy, plus the colophons. The paintings in inks and colors feature the mountains rising to the sky in the best Chinese pictorial tradition. The scenery includes a few houses but no mankind except for a fisherman in his boat in the third image. The line is thin, with a geometric simplification of the rocks. The calligraphy is a poem from the early Ming period by Shen Zhou. The terminus ante quem is the artist's death around 1664.
It was sold for HK $ 128M from a lower estimate of HK $ 45M by Sotheby's on April 19, 2021, lot 3076. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Hongren (1610–1664), born Jiang Tao and also known as Jianjiang, was a prominent Chinese Buddhist monk and painter during the transition from the Ming to the Qing dynasty. Originally from Shexian in Anhui province, he received a classical education and passed the prefectural civil service examination, positioning him for a bureaucratic career. However, the fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644 disrupted this path; in response to the Manchu conquest, Hongren became a monk, adopting his monastic name and retreating to monasteries around Mount Huangshan. He is recognized as one of the "Four Monks" of the late Ming and early Qing period, alongside Zhu Da (Bada Shanren), Shitao, and Kuncan, all of whom used art as a form of subtle resistance and personal expression amid political upheaval. Hongren lived a reclusive life until his death at age 54, focusing on painting, poetry, and Zen (Chan) Buddhist practice.
His artistic style is defined by sparse, austere landscapes that evoke themes of solitude, detachment, and introspection rooted in Chan Buddhism. Hongren employed dry, angular brushwork with a geometric, almost architectural approach to form, creating compositions that emphasize structural simplicity over elaborate detail. He drew heavy inspiration from the Yuan dynasty master Ni Zan (1306–1374), adopting a linear technique that prioritizes minimalism and spatial clarity, often depicting secluded mountains, valleys, and rivers to symbolize inner peace and defiance against worldly chaos. Works like The Sound of Spring in a Lonely Valley exemplify this, with their refined ink tones and balanced, near-abstract structures.
As the foremost figure of the Anhui (Xin'an) school, centered in southeast China, Hongren's legacy lies in establishing a regional tradition that influenced Qing dynasty painting for generations. His emphasis on geometric abstraction and emotional restraint helped define the Huangshan school, inspiring later artists to explore themes of reclusion and nature's enduring order amid societal turmoil. Hongren's works symbolized loyalist sentiment against the Qing regime, using art as a quiet protest, and his innovative style bridged Ming individualism with Qing formalism, impacting painters like Wang Hui and the broader orthodox school. Today, his paintings are held in major collections, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, underscoring his enduring role in Chinese art history.
