A 14th-century landscape by one of China's most revered painters became the first work of art to surpass HK$100 million this season at Christie's Hong Kong during Asian Art Week. Following a gripping 45-minute bidding war on 28 October, Ni Zan’s River Pavilion, Mountain Colours sold for HK$160 million (US$20.7 million) – nearly seven times its low estimate – making it the fourth most valuable Chinese painting ever sold at Christie’s Asia.
One of the "Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty," Ni Zan (1301-1374) is celebrated for his minimal, contemplative ink landscapes: spare compositions of distant riverbanks separated by vast, empty expanses of water. This distinctive approach, often described as “one river, two banks,” marked a pivotal breakthrough in Chinese painting and influenced generations of artists.
While few authentic works by Ni remain in private hands, River Pavilion, Mountain Colours is among the most acclaimed. It has been widely published and exhibited since the mid-20th century and has passed through a succession of notable collections, including that of the renowned C. C. Wang.
The crowd raised their phones to capture the moment River Pavilion, Mountain Colours was sold
Lot 653 | Ni Zan (1301-1374) | River Pavilion, Mountain Colours, hanging scroll, ink on paper
Dated tenth day, third month of wushen year (1368)
81.8 x 33.4 cm
Inscribed with a poem and signed by the artist
Colophon by Xie Chang (14th C.), with three seals
Nine collector’s seals: two of Da Chongguang (1623-1692), one of Wang Hongxu (1645-1723), four of Hongxiao (1722-1778) and two of Wang Jiqian (C.C. Wang, 1907-2003)
Provenance:
- Collection of C. C. Wang
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
- A prominent North American collection
Estimate: HK$20,000,000 - 30,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$135,000,000
Sold: HK$159,950,000 (US$20.7 million)
Auction House: Christie's Hong Kong
Sale: Fine Chinese Classical Paintings and Calligraphy
Date: 28 October 2025
Auctioneer Liang-lin Chen opened bidding at HK$18 million, drawing immediate interest from five collectors. The pace was brisk in the early minutes, with offers quickly pushing the price to HK$60 million before slowing to more measured bidding.
As the figure approached HK$100 million, the contest narrowed to two phone bidders, represented by Ning Ge (Client Strategy Manager for Asia Pacific) and Harriet Yu (Senior Client Advisor for China). At HK$135 million, Yu withdrew, and the painting was sold to Ge’s client with paddle 8672.
The result places River Pavilion, Mountain Colours among the most valuable Chinese paintings ever sold at Christie’s Asia. Only three works have achieved higher prices:
- Su Shi (1037–1101), Wood and Rock | 27.2 x 543 cm | Sold in 2018 for HK$463.6 million
- Zhang Daqian (1899–1983), Temple at the Mountain Peak | 127.7 x 63 cm | Sold in 2021 for HK$209.1 million
- Fu Baoshi (1904–1965), The Song of the Pipa Player | 113 x 66 cm | Sold in 2017 for HK$204.85 million
Ning Ge (Client Strategy Manager for Asia Pacific) won the work for her client with paddle 8672
Su Shi (1037–1101), Wood and Rock | 27.2 x 543 cm | Sold in 2018 for HK$463.6 million
Zhang Daqian (1899–1983), Temple at the Mountain Peak | 127.7 x 63 cm | Sold in 2021 for HK$209.1 million
Fu Baoshi (1904–1965), The Song of the Pipa Player | 113 x 66 cm | Sold in 2017 for HK$204.85 million
River Pavilion, Mountain Colours was painted in the spring of 1368, inscribed with a date corresponding to the tenth day of the third lunar month – when a friend invited Ni Zan to a monastic retreat and requested a painting.
The scroll was created at a pivotal historical moment: the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty and the founding of the native Ming. Yet the painting reflects none of this political turmoil, offering instead a landscape of detachment – a pristine world untouched by dynastic change.
Born into an affluent landowning family in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, Ni received a classical education and spent his early life as a scholar and connoisseur. Like many Han Chinese intellectuals of the time, he declined to pursue an official career under Mongol rule, devoting himself instead to cultivated pursuits: poetry, painting, calligraphy, and the collecting of antiquities, rare books, and art.
He maintained close ties with leading artists of his generation, and his private library became a well-known gathering place for the local cultural elite. Through this extensive collection, he gained direct access to masterpieces of the past, from which he developed his distinctive style: transforming the hemp-fiber texture strokes of Southern Tang master Dong Yuan into angular, ribbon-like forms.
Close-up of the painting
In the final years of the Yuan dynasty, the empire began to crumble under the weight of peasant rebellions and internal strife. To fund its military campaigns, the government imposed heavy taxes on wealthy landowners in the south.
Unwilling to submit to these exactions – or to the surrounding chaos – Ni Zan made a radical decision: he gave away much of his fortune and abandoned his life of privilege, embarking on a new existence as a rootless wanderer. For the last two decades of his life, he traveled by boat through the rivers and lakes of his native region, living in quiet reclusion. It was during this period that his artistic style reached full maturity.
The inscription on River Pavilion, Mountain Colours refers to the cyclical year wushen (1368) but makes no mention of the new Ming dynasty — reflecting Ni Zan’s consistent detachment from political affairs, even at a moment of dynastic transition.
The inscription on the painting
River Pavilion, Mountain Colours is a transcendent example of Ni Zan’s late style. On a sloping embankment in the foreground, five or six spindly trees rise above a broad expanse of water; beneath them stands a solitary, four-posted thatched pavilion.
The river at the center – left in blank reserve – creates a vast interval between foreground and distance, where mountain ridges emerge in dry, slanting strokes and scattered ink dots. This deliberate emptiness – at once austere and resonant – speaks to the artist’s spiritual withdrawal, where nature becomes a vessel for philosophical introspection and inner strength.
On the left side of the scroll is a colophon by Xie Chang, a poet active during the late Yuan and early Ming who studied under Yang Weizhen and likewise chose a life of seclusion. Over the centuries, the scroll passed through the hands of esteemed collectors: in the early Qing, it was treasured by Da Chongguang and Wang Hongxu; by the mid-Qing, it had entered the collection of Hongxiao, Prince Yi.
C. C. Wang
The Rongxi Studio, housed in the Palace Museum in Taipei
In the twentieth century, it was acquired by C. C. Wang, a leading artist, collector, and scholar of classical Chinese painting, before passing to a distinguished Chinese-American family who purchased it directly from him. The painting remained in this private collection for over four decades before coming to auction.
Accompanied by an extensive literature record, River Pavilion, Mountain Colours has long been recognized as one of Ni Zan’s most celebrated surviving works. It has been widely exhibited, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and twice at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, in 2015 and 2024.
A closely comparable work is The Rongxi Studio, housed in the Palace Museum, Taipei – another representative piece from Ni Zan’s late period. Both paintings share similar size, composition, and placement of rocks and pavilions.