[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was known for being a patron of the arts and crafts.

And among the court painters who served during his reign, Qian Weicheng, also a high-ranking official, and Yu Xing were his favorites, given the inscriptions he wrote on many of their works.

An ink landscape by Qian and a genre painting of fish by Yu will go under the hammer at Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong, on April 1.

It took Qian two months to complete A Landscape Inspired by Four Great Painters of Yuan, a five-meter-long scroll which pays tribute to his mentors, the four master artists of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368): Zhao Mengfu, Huang Gongwang, Ni Zan and Wang Meng. It was gift to his brother Qian Weiqiao.