Twelve Landscape Screens

Twelve Landscape Screens
Chinese: 山水十二條屏
ArtistQi Baishi
Year1925
MediumHanging scroll; ink brush on silk
MovementModern Chinese
Dimensions180 cm × 47 cm (71 in[a] × 18.5 in[a])
LocationPrivate collection

Twelve Landscape Screens (traditional Chinese: 山水十二條屏; simplified Chinese: 山水十二条屏) is a set of ink wash panels painted by Qi Baishi in 1925, depicting rural Chinese villages alongside mountains and trees across the four seasons in a year. The panels were sold at auction for $140.8 million USD in 2017, making them the most expensive non-Western paintings ever sold.[1]

Description

Each of the twelve panels are 180cm long and 47cm wide and have individual titles.[2][b] They illustrate natural scenery using primarily soft pinks, browns and blues.[1] Scenery in the paintings was inspired by Qi Baishi's travels throughout rural China,[2] while the depictions of houses were inspired by Qi's own village in Hunan.[2]

Each individual panel features Qi's signature seal carvings,[5] as well as an accompanying poem written in calligraphy.[6][5]

History

The panels were painted in 1925 while Qi was living in Beijing,[1] and were a birthday gift to Chen Zilin, a prominent Beijing-based physician and personal friend.[2][3][4] Ten of the twelve panels were publicly displayed in 1954 by the China Artists Association, which Qi led at the time.[7] After his death in 1957, the China Artists Association and the Ministry of Culture displayed all twelve panels in a 1958 posthumous exhibition.[4][3] The paintings were then secretly given to Xiuyi Guo, a fellow artist and pupil of Qi,[7][5] who went on to keep them in Taiwan for multiple decades.[3][2][4] From the 1980s to the 2010s, Twelve Landscape Screens was held by a private collector.[6]

The panels were originally scheduled to be sold in 2015 by Poly Auction, with a price guide of $115–217 million USD, but the sale was called off for undisclosed reasons.[7]

Second set

In 1932, Qi painted an additional set of the Twelve Landscape Screens and gifted it to Wang Zuanxu, a Kuomintang general.[7] That set is currently housed at the Three Gorges Museum in Chongqing,[8][6] and was displayed prior to the sale of the original panels.[7]

Sale in 2017

Twelve Landscape Screens made history on December 17, 2017, when it was sold for $140.8 million USD with Poly Auction in Beijing.[1] The sale set a historical record and as of 2026, it remains the highest price ever paid for a painting by an Asian artist.[1] It also made Qi the first Chinese artist whose work has been sold for more than $100 million USD at auction.[2]

A representative for the auction house revealed that almost all of the bidders were from Mainland China, including the buyer, but declined to share further information about their identity.[7][6] The paintings are currently housed in a private collection.[8]

Notes

  1. ^ Measurements for a singular panel.
  2. ^ Titles from left-to-right, top-to-bottom as pictured:[3][4]
    • "Lotus Fragrance in a Plank Pond"
    • "Red Trees and White Springs"
    • "Spring Rain in the Mountains"
    • "Sailing Shadows in Deep Mist"
    • "Fir Trees and Pavilions"
    • "Apricot Blossom Thatched Cottage"
    • "White Houses Under Pine Trees"
    • "Afterglow on the Distant Shore"
    • "Dense Cypress Trees"
    • "Lone Sail on a Plank Bridge"
    • "Double Reflections on Rocky Cliffs"
    • "Riverside Dwellings"

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Haas, Benjamin (18 December 2017). "Paintings by Chinese artist Qi Baishi sell for record £105m". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Qi Baishi sketches bring in record $144m". China Daily. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  3. ^ a b c d "史上最貴近現代書畫！白石老人12條屏9.315億人民幣拍出". 非池中藝術網; Art Emperor. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  4. ^ a b c d "最貴中國藝術品出爐！齊白石《山水十二條屏》RMB 9.3億成交 | 拍賣新聞 | THE VALUE | 連結藝術新聞、藝術展覽、拍賣新聞、藝術行家的藝術平台". The Value Hong Kong (in Chinese). Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  5. ^ a b c "【多圖】齊白石《山水十二屏》逾9億人幣成交 成最貴中國藝術品". 香港01 HK01 (in Chinese (Hong Kong)). 18 December 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  6. ^ a b c d Kwok, Ben (19 December 2017). "China's Qi Baishi now among world's 'most profitable' painters". Asia Times. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  7. ^ a b c d e f "Most Expensive Chinese Work of Art — Qi Baishi's Twelve Screens of Landscapes Fetches RMB 930m". The Value. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  8. ^ a b "Twelve Landscape Screens". The Art Wolf. 21 May 2006. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
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