Page 300 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

1969.12.1 (2363)

Archery Contest

Qing dynasty, nineteenth century
Oil on cotton, 77.8 x 110.8 (30% x 44)
Gift of Dr. Catherine Lilly Bacon

TECHNICAL NOTES
The primary support is a closely woven, medium weight cotton, influence on the Chinese production of paintings for
2
which has been lined to canvas. The thin white ground contain- export, as he took on many pupils, usually visiting busi-
ing lead white is estimated to be oil. The oil paint layer is applied nessmen and ships' officers or their wives. His most
in thin to medium overlying opaque layers, with low impasto in famous pupil was the Chinese artist Guan Qiaochang (fl.
the details and highlights. The painting is structurally sound, 1830-1850), known to the West as Lamqua. The popular-
although there are numerous spiral and linear cracks, as is char- ity of Chinnery's and Lamqua's paintings among the
acteristic of Chinese export oil paintings. Some areas of inpaint- Western merchants led to the widespread imitation of
ing have discolored, as has the natural resin varnish.
their works and, through them, a dissemination of the
European style of painting.
PROVENANCE
Dr. Catherine Lilly Bacon, Woods Hole, Massachusetts. More typical of export oil paintings are port scenes,
ships' portraits, and portraits of captains and merchants,
N AN OPEN TERRACE attached to a pavilion, a dignitary both Chinese and Western. Except for an occasional oil
Owith attendants watches an archery contest taking painting of Chinese domestic life, most genre scenes
place within a fenced compound in a rural landscape set- were painted in gouache on paper in a small format.
ting. To the left of center an archer is shown aiming at a Individual components of this painting and its com-
panion would have been standard elements found in a
rectangular target that is painted white with a red circle. In
set of gouache paintings: dignitaries and attendants,
the foreground four bowmen stand awaiting their turn,
palanquins, archers, musicians, small groups of proces-
and another dignitary watches from a folding chair. He
sional figures. It is unusual to find large-scale oil paint-
too is accompanied by attendants, one of whom holds a
parasol indicative of his high status. To the right are four ings depicting everyday life in a rural setting 3 away from
palanquins with attendants and three horses with grooms. Guangzhou and other centers of commerce. Such sub-
This and its companion piece (1969.12.2) were painted jects, although of great interest to Westerners, were not
by a Chinese artist, most probably in Guangzhou generally accessible to them.
(Canton), expressly for export to the West. The field of ws
China trade paintings has become the subject of
1
increased interest and study. The first recorded effort to NOTES
introduce Western perspective and painting techniques 1. See Clunas 1984; Grossman 1972; Pearl River 1981; Trade
to China was that of the Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione Painting 1982; and Tillotson 1987. One of the few early volumes
(1688-1766), who in 1729 published a manual entitled to seriously treat the subject of Chinese export paintings is
Visual Instruction, written in Chinese, in collaboration Orange 1924.
with Nian Xiyao. Only in the late eighteenth and early 2. See Chinnery 1985; and Hutcheon 1974.
nineteenth centuries, when the economic incentives 3. One of a set of four large (83.2 x 25.7) paintings depicting
became too great to be ignored, did Chinese artists in the Chinese life is illustrated in Grossman 1972,87. Another in the set
vicinity of Guangzhou adopt a Western style. Macao, is said to depict an archery contest. Although port scenes were
from which merchant ships traveled to Guangzhou, had frequently available in sets of four (usually of Guangzhou, Hong
a school of Western-trained artists, thanks to the English Kong, Macao, and the Whampoa Anchorage), there is no history
artist George Chinnery (1774-1852), who lived in Macao of genre scenes being generally sold in groups of two or more.
from 1825 until his death. Chinnery had wide-ranging

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