Lot 8007: Zeng Xi (1861-1930) Peony, 1925

Peony, 1925
Hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, dated yichou (1925), inscribed by the artist and signed Nongran xi, with two artist's seals reading Zeng Xi zhiyin and Nongran.
43 3/8 x 21in (110.2 x 53.3cm)

Footnotes

• 曾熙 牡丹圖 設色紙本 立軸 1925年作
  
  Zeng Xi attained a jinshi degree in the 1903 imperial examinations, in the waning years of the Qing imperial dynasty. He would serve the Manchu court until the Xinhai Revolution in 1911; and after, Zeng Xi relocated to Shanghai, where he would establish himself as an important calligrapher and cultural presence in the thriving and dynamic art world. Among his students was a young Zhang Daqian in 1919, and Zeng Xi's colophons on classical paintings endowed them with capital. Late in his career--after the age of 60--Zeng Xi took up painting, applying his deft calligraphic skills to different subjects.