JACQUE-PHILIPPE LE BAS AFTER GIUSEPPE CASTIGLIONE 'The Lifting of the Siege of the Black River Camp'

JACQUE-PHILIPPE LE BAS (1707-1783) AFTER GIUSEPPE CASTIGLIONE (1688-1766) 'The Lifting of the Siege of the Black River Camp', 1771 (engraved), inscribed in pencil in the margin and dated 1775, monochrome copper-plate engraving, 57cm x 91.5cm (plate size) Note: this print is from a series of sixteen engravings 'The Conquests of the Emperor of China' commissioned by the Emperor Qianlong, engraved in Paris after original drawings by Jesuit artist-missionaries in Beijing and made under the direction of Charles-Nicolas Cochin (1715-1790). They were created to commemorate Manchu military victories over the Eleuths, Dzungars and other Central Asian peoples between 1755 and 1759. The series was etched and engraved in France by the finest printmakers to the court of Louis XV between 1767 and 1774. Two hundred copies were made and most were sent to China, with only a few proof sets remaining in Paris. The commission exemplifies the East-West artistic fusion which was fostered within the Qing Imperial painting academy at the time. This print depicts the end of the siege of a camp at Qara usu (Black River), near Yarkland in 1758, where Qing troops had been trapped for three months in winter. The siege was lifted in 1759. The acclaimed Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione (Langshining 1688-1766) produced the original work in 1765 and the print was executed in 1771 by Jacques-Philippe Le Bas (1707-1783). The fact that this example has no printed inscription in the plate but only pencil notes in the margin suggests that it was one of the proof sets retained in France. Another copy of this engraving is extant in the Metropolitan Museum New York (45.100.7). For literature on the subject see Pirazzoli-T'Serstevens, M., Gravures des conquetes de l'empereur de Chine Kien-Long au Musee Guimet, Paris 1969; Guardiola, P. T., Les batailles de l'empereur de Chine: la gloire de Qianlong celebre par Louis XV, une commande royale d'estampes, Musee du Louvre, Paris, 2009, fig.7, p.92; and von Spee, C., The Printed Image in China from 8th-21st Century, London 2010. A complete set of sixteen engravings was sold by Christie's New York, 20-21st March 1997, lot 286. A set of eleven were sold by Christie's London on 5th June 2008, lot 170.