The Personal Collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung. Lot 24. Qi Baishi (1864 - 1957), Bodhidharma Meditating Under the Bodhi Tree, ink and colour on paper, framed, signed, with 1 seal of the artist and 2 collector's seals; 136 x 45 cm 53½ x 17¾ in. Lot sold: 30,625,000 HKD (Estimate: 3,500,000 - 5,000,000 HKD). © Sotheby's 2022

Inscription: Qi Huang.

Provenance: Collection of Hsiung Shih-i (1902-1991).
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, Modern Chinese Paintings, 28 May 1980, Lot 17.

Literature: Han Mo 14, Special Study on Qi Baishi, Han Mo Xuan Publishing Co. Ltd., March 1991, p.117.

Note: The painting was formerly in the collection of Hsiung Shih-i(Xiong Shiyi). Born in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, Hsiung was a celebrated dramatist, educator, and translator. Regarded by Xu Zhimo as “the leading Chinese scholar of English drama”, he translated many important works of English literature. In 1932, Hsiung travelled to England and wrote a new play in English based on the Chinese story Wang Baochuan, which held the record of running for nine hundred nights in three consecutive years in London. Before settling in Hong Kong in the late 1950s, he had taught at various institutions including the University of Cambridge, University of London, University of Hawai’i in the United States, and Nanyang University in Singapore.

Hsiung maintained close contact with the painting and calligraphy circles at the time. His rich personal collection, largely comprised of gifts, attests to his relationship with the cultural figures. In the 1960s, in order to fund the establishment of Tsing Hua College, he sold his collection which included masterpieces by Zhang Daqian, Qi Baishi, Huang Binhong, Xu Beihong, and Fu Baoshi.

Sotheby's. HOTUNG The Personal Collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung: Part 1, Hong Kong, 8 October 2022