Page 86 - March 22 2022 Bonhams

PROPERTY FROM THE RICHARD MILHENDER COLLECTION
155
A CHINESE REVERSE GLASS PAINTING, L’OBEISSANCE
RECOMPENSE (OBEDIENCE REWARDED)
Probably late 18th century, after an engraving by Rene Gaillard based In an article by Olivier von Elt entitled ‘A Taste and Talent for
an oil painting by Francois Boucher Treasures: Kollenburg Antiquairs’ published in https/gallerease.com/
nl/magazine/articles/007abaeab8f0, the author illustrates two similar
Depicting a pastoral scene with a young farm hand in a semi- reverse glass paintings, one after Boucher, the other after Eisen, both
recumbent pose leaning against two wheat sheaves, with his left depicting intimate pastoral scenes with young couples.
hand raised, to feed a dog a small treat, whilst an elegantly attired
young lady leans against a sculptural water-fountain with putti and The difficulty in painting reverse glass images is more easily grasped
watches the dog raised on its rear haunches awaiting the tidbit, all when one understands that the image must be applied directly
set in a wooded landscape. on the glass and therefore in the reverse order to that of an oil on
21in (53.3cm); 15in (38cm) excluding original gilt wood frame canvas, with foreground details applied first, and with each depth of
surface plain added in an unnatural reverse layering, ending with the
$7,000 - 10,000 undersurface of the painting.

或爲十八世紀晚期 中國畫派 外銷聖經故事玻璃畫 In the 18th and early 19th century, a thriving export market existed
for Chinese reverse glass paintings. European traders supplied
Provenance Chinese artists with prints with western subjects, to be copied in
Jeremy Ltd, London, September 1987 bright and splendid colors on glass. Artists, working in and around
The Richard Milhender Collection, Boston, Massachusetts, Guangzhou (Canton), meticulously copied European originals in
1987-present oil paint on the glass with a Chinese brush. The vibrant colors and
exotic nature of many of the subjects made them highly sought after.
出處： However, the fragility of the material has left us with a fraction of the
倫敦 Jeremy Ltd，1987 年九月 percentage produced.
麻州波士頓 Richard Milhender 藏，1987 年至今
See Christie’s, London, ‘The Collector’, 15 July 2020, lot 149, for a
This charming painting would have been copied by a Chinese artist similar Chinese reverse glass painting (17 1/2 inches x 15 inches)
from the well-known engraving entitled L’obeissance recompense, after an engraving by Rene Gaillard based on a painting (now
(Obedience rewarded) by the print maker Rene Gaillard (c. 1719- considered lost) ‘Le Mouton Favori’ by the French genre painter
1790) based on an oil painting by the celebrated artist Francois Charles Dominique Eisen (1720-1778). It depicts two similar figures
Boucher (1703-1770) now in the Musee Des Beaux-Arts, Nimes. petting sheep with a dog nearby.
Gaillard produced a series of pastoral scenes after Francois Boucher
and Charles D. Eisen and they appear to have been especially
favored as subjects for China trade paintings, though the subjects
are symbolic rather than literal, an allegory on the power of love and
devotion.

Interestingly the colors on the engraving, which are similarly used on
the reverse glass painting, differ from the colors used in the original
painting. The young resting laborer wears a vivid coral red waistcoat
in the original and leans against a satchel or bag, rather than
wheat sheaves. The young lady, possibly his belle, wears a similarly
décolleté dress but painted in a soft pinkish blush rather than the
deep marine-blue of the reverse glass version and colored engraving.

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