Celebrated Chinese painting collection to sell at Sotheby's

Sotheby's will offer Roy and Marilyn Papp's celebrated collection of Chinese paintings on September 14.

The headline lot looks set to be a section of handscroll six from The Kangxi Emperor's Southern Inspection Tour (1689), which is valued at $4m-6m.

Kangxi emperor tour
The Kangxi Emperor toured southern China in 1689

Kangxi travelled to the south of the country in 1689 to oversee operations to control flooding along the Grand Canal.

The work was produced by the legendary landscape painter Wang Hui (1632-1717), along with his assistants, and consists of 12 handscrolls documenting the emperor's journey.

It took around seven years to complete and most of the scrolls have since been lost or damaged.

While this is only a segment of a single scroll, it's very well preserved.

Shen Zhou's poem Enjoying the Mid-Autumn Moon in the Bamboo Villa is valued at $1.8m-2.5m.

Shen Zhou was a 15th century poet and artist considered a key innovator in Chinese culture.

Rongde Zhang, the head of the sale, commented: "Roy and Marilyn Papp had immense foresight assembling their extensive collection of Chinese paintings in the 1970s and 1980s, far before much of the rest of the world began researching and appreciating the field.

"Fueled by their passion and dedication, this comprehensive overview of works from the Ming and Qing Dynasty includes a tremendous range of artists, exploring a variety of themes."

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