A Chinese Scroll Painting By Tang Yin 85.5 x 52.5cm

Source: Collected by Sun Zhifei and passed down through the family. The scroll has a label attached and bears the seal of Sun Zhifei's wife, Yang Yamin(Yang Diemian).

Sun Zhifei (1905-1966) was a native of Shanghai and born into a scholarly family. His father, Sun Yusheng, was a famous writer of the Republic of China, known as "Hai Shang Shu Shi Sheng" and was renowned for his work "The Dream of Prosperity on the Sea". He was also an accomplished artist. Sun Zhifei devoted his entire life to public service and was the General Manager of the Hua Shang Electrical Company in the 1940s. He firmly refused to collaborate with the Japanese during their occupation of China and was highly respected in society.

Sun inherited his family's knowledge of literature and history, and even wrote an interpretation of the Diamond Sutra. During the Japanese invasion of China, his family's collection of books and paintings was taken away as loot. Sun was determined to rebuild the collection and between 1944 and 1955, he devoted all his energy and resources to collecting over 100 pieces of art from various schools with the aim of "truth, precision, and purity". He was sincere and dedicated in his approach, seeking advice from experts and was highly regarded by his peers in the art world, including Wu Hufan, Qian Jingtang, and Liu Haisu.

In the 1960s, during the Cultural Revolution, Sun's collection of books and paintings were seized and confiscated. It was not until 1979 that they were returned to the family.

In the 2022 Spring Auction of Sotheby's Hong Kong, the Sun family's collection of a painting by Zhang Daqian titled "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" sold for HKD 320 million, breaking the record for the auction of Zhang Daqian's paintings.