PEINTURE REPRÉSENTANT UNE DAME DE COUR ET SA SERVANTEProbablement dynastie Ming (1368-1644) ou antérieur A PAINTING OF A COURT LADY AND LADY-ATTENDANT Probably Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) or earlier Ink and pigment on silk, with apocryphal seal of Song emperor Huizong, reading Neifu tushu zhi yin on the top left, seal of Jin dynasty emperor Zhangzong, reading Mingchang Yulan , collector's seal lower right reading Nanchang wanshi zhencang , framed and glazed. 135cm (53in) long x 56cm (22in) wide. Provenance: Robert Rousset, Paris (1901-1981), acquired prior to 1935 Jean-Pierre Rousset, Paris (1936-2021) The present lot depicts an elegant Court lady holding in her hand a sheng or free-reed wind instrument, seated outside beside a gnarled rock issuing peony. Behind her stands an attendant draped in green robes, the relatively large size of the lady indicates her importancepared to the smaller attendant. The Court lady wears an elaborate headdress with seven phoenix, perhaps indicating that this is Bixia Yuanjun, the primordial sovereign of the dawn clouds, or Lady of Mount Tai. In Daoism, she is considered not only the Goddess of Mount Tai, but also of childbirth and destiny. She became an important deity particularly in the north of China during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The detail of the clothes is particularly magnificent. The Lady is clad in gorgeously decorated robes detailed with a Daoist Immortal carrying a staff from which hangs a double-gourd containing an elixir, and facing a crane and tortoise, symbols of longevity. This again would seem to indicate that the figure is a deity or connected to Daoism. In the centre of the painting is a spurious seal reading 'Mingchang Yulan', seal of the Jin emperor Zhangzong (r.1188–1208). Emperor Zhangzong attempted to supersede the former Song emperor Huizong as an art connoisseur and inherited a large collection of art which he inscribed or attached his seal to. See the painting, for example, of 'Lady Guoguo's Spring Outing', attributed to Zhang Xuan, where emperor Zhangzong added the three characters 'Tian shuimo', which actually belonged to Huizong; see Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting , Yale, 1997, p.77. Another collector's seal on the bottom right reads 'Nanchang wanshi zhencang' which likely belonged to Wan Chengzi 萬承紫(1775-1837). In the upper left is another apocryphal seal reading 'Neifu tushu zhi yin' (內府圖書之印 'Seal for Painting and Calligraphy of the Palace Storehouses'), the seal of Emperor Huizong. Although the painting echoes the work of Tang dynasty painter, Zhou Fang, and his 'Court Ladies Wearing Flowered Headdresses', illustrated in Wei Jin zhi Wudai huihua , Shijiazhuang, 2003, pp.86-87, with their large chignons and elaborate headdresses, the style of the painting would suggest a a later date. See for example, related figures of ladies in a Daoist wall painting 'Homage to the Highest Power', originally from the L