Ink and colour on silk 159.5 by 90.7 cm.

Depicting an o
ffi
cial adorned with a winged black hat and long
fl
owing red robes, decorated with the gold rank badge, and a green inlaid belt, seated on a chair decorated with a geometric pattern, framed. 
Chinese ancestor portraits came into vogue during the late-Ming (1368-1644) dynasty. In Imperial China, it was a sacred family duty to care for the spirits of deceased ancestors. Food o
ff
erings were commonly placed before commemorative portraits commonly referred to as "ancestor paintings."
Th
ese were painted speci
fi
cally for use in ancestor worship and it was believed the power of the living person resided in their portrait after death. Ancestor portraits almost always depicted their subjects in a nearly live-size frontal pose, most often seated in some sort of throne with a lavish carpet at their feet. Typically, they would be wearing semiformal gowns with insignia that proclaimed their rank or status. All ancestors were painted with virtually the same expression- a symbolically somber and detached look- to suggest some sort of objective, otherworldly status. It has been argued that great care needed to be taken when depicting the face since the Chinese believed that capturing the likeness was crucial for the portrait to be able to function as a ritual object. If the portrait did not capture the likeness, it was said that all future prayers would go to someone else’s ancestor, a tragedy at best.
Before the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, ancestor paintings were rarely available for purchase or exhibited publicly. Today, they are recognized as a signi
fi
cant and unique Chinese art form, appreciated by audiences far greater than any ancestor might ever have imagined.