Chinese Turkestan

The horses in these paintings were gifts presented to Emperor Chien Lung (1736-1796) of the Ching Dynasty (1644-1911) by chieftains from Chinese Turkestan where the uprisings of Western Mongols and Moslems in 1750's had just been suppressed. Chien Lung cherished those horses so much that he ordered his court painter, Castiglione, to portray them on silk.