A Chinese scroll with Daoist style ancestors and saints in heavenly surroundings, with text saying “Five ancestors and seven saints”. Watercolour on silk, mounted on paper. Qing, 19th century. Image 150×74 cm. Provenance: Sophus Black 1882–1960, telegraph manager and art collector. After graduation, Black was employed in the large Northern Telegraph Company, and he was stationed in London in 1900 and 1902–31 in China. After his service in Shanghai, Chefoo and Tientsin, he came to Beijing in 1907, and from 1919 he served as manager of the company's station there, as well as, periodically, the stations in Tientsin, Chefoo and Hong Kong. Black was soon preoccupied with Chinese culture and art, which he began to collect. Over the years this collection became highly diversified and included Buddhist figures, ancestor portraits etc. Several of Black's things found their way to the National Museum of Denmark. Black and his wife Minna Dich were advisors for Danes, who were going to China, and for various museums and collectors who wanted to purchase asian art.