CHINE, fin de la période Qing-période République

Large polychrome painting on silk depicting an equestrian portrait, probably of Xiang Fei, one of the Qianlong emperor's concubines, shown in armor, riding a piebald horse. With two apocryphal Qianlong seals. Dim. 165 x 101 cm (breaks, soiling and small gaps) Nb. This equestrian portrait seems to have been inspired by the portrait of the imperial concubine Xiang Fei in armor, preserved in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and the equestrian portrait of Emperor Qianlong by Castiglione, also in the Taipei Museum, as the hindquarters of the two horses are identical. Xiang Fei was an Uighur princess whose beauty captivated the Qianlong emperor. She was one of his favorite concubines, and spent 28 years at the Beijing court, where she died at the age of 55, according to one version of her life. A somewhat mysterious figure, she was said to emanate a bewitching perfume, hence her name Xiang Fei "perfumed concubine".