Why Yongxing matters
Yongxing is the given name of an eighteenth-century Manchu prince of the Qing dynasty, the eleventh son of the Qianlong Emperor, recorded in museum and art-market sources as a calligrapher and painter. His work survives in institutional collections, including an album at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which places him among a small group of imperial-court artists whose brushwork is preserved outside dynastic archives. He matters to a collector chiefly as a caution: several unrelated modern artists carry similar romanized names, and confirming the correct person and the correct Chinese characters is the necessary first step before treating any market data as his.
- Born
- 1752-03-22, Beijing, Qing dynasty China
- Nationality
- Chinese (Qing dynasty)
- Media
- Calligraphy, Painting
- Movement
- Qing dynasty court art
- Education
- No documented school, degree, or dated course of study. As a Qing imperial prince he would have received the customary court education in the classics, calligraphy, and painting, but no source specifies an institution or years.
- Signature motifs
- Calligraphy in classical Chinese script, Painting and calligraphy album leaves
By the numbers
- 1752 to 1823Life datesQing dynasty imperial prince and calligrapher
- Metropolitan Museum of ArtMuseum collectionAlbum of paintings and calligraphy leaves attributed to Prince Yongxing
- Not establishedAuction recordNo verified public sale price could be confirmed as of 2026-07-18
Selected works
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Biography
Yongxing was born on 22 March 1752 in Beijing, the eleventh son of the Qianlong Emperor and a member of the Manchu imperial Aisin Gioro clan. He held the posthumous title Prince Chengzhe of the First Rank. Within the Qing court he was known for calligraphy, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art catalogs an album of nine paintings and nine leaves of calligraphy, in ink and color on paper, attributed to him. He died on 10 May 1823. No source consulted specifies a particular school, degree, or dated course of study; his education would have followed the standard classical training given to an imperial prince, but the details are not documented in the sources available.
Critical reception
English-language critical writing devoted specifically to Yongxing's calligraphy and painting is limited in the sources reviewed. His work is documented mainly through museum catalog entries, such as the Metropolitan Museum's record of his album, and through brief biographical listings rather than exhibition reviews or critical essays. No verbatim quotation from a named critic in a major outlet, specifically about Yongxing, could be confirmed.
Market
No all-time auction record for a work securely attributed to Yongxing could be verified across major auction houses as of 2026-07-18. Tracking his market is complicated by several unrelated artists whose names romanize similarly, including Ye Yongqing, Yan Xing, Huang Yongxing, and Ye Hongxing, none of whom should be conflated with this Qing prince. Any auction listing that appears under the name Yongxing should be checked against the original Chinese characters, the lot's stated dates, and the cataloguing house before it is treated as a sale of his work.
Museum collections
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Authentication and provenance
No catalogue raisonne.
No catalogue raisonne and no certificate-of-authenticity program have been identified. Given the eighteenth to nineteenth century date and the calligraphy and painting medium, attribution for market purposes rests on museum provenance and connoisseurship, including comparison to the catalogued album held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Primary reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yongxing_(prince)
What collectors should know
The single most important step for a collector is identity verification: confirm the correct Chinese characters, life dates (1752 to 1823), and specific attribution before assuming a work or auction result belongs to this artist rather than to one of several similarly named modern figures. There is no catalogue raisonne and no known contemporary gallery or estate representation, since he predates the modern commercial gallery system by more than a century. The most reliable public reference point remains the catalogued album held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which should anchor any comparison for connoisseurship purposes.
Further reading and resources
Data current as of 2026-07-18.
