Page 59 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

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Maria Kar-wing Mok, Rosalien van der Poel have made significant contributions.

These studies have revealed many new export paintings about Chinese export trade.

They have also examined export paintings as visual sources that reveal many aspects

of Chinese export trade. For example, van Dyke and Mok demonstrate the geographic

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changes of shops in Canton. Lau has illustrated the daily life of different types of
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painters in Canton during the early nineteenth century. Van der Poel, meanwhile,

made a further contribution to the dynamic display of Chinese export painting in

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Dutch museums.

Among the general category of Chinese export painting, there is a group of

paintings relating to my research. It is a group of albums that shows the different

processes of porcelain manufactures and trade. These paintings were usually painted

in albums and the dimensions were usually in a small format. (Appendix C) The small

format paintings, such as albums, were believed to be a way to increase market

reach. 100 It is also believed such paintings were made to satisfy the curiosity of the

Westerners, as souvenirs. Pictures in series illustrating production processes of tea,

porcelain and silk were especially popular. 101 Ellen Huang has viewed some export

96 Jiang Yinghe, Qingdai yanghua yu guangzhou kouan [Western Paintings and Canton port
during the Qing period] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2007); Susan E. Schopp, ‘The French as
Architectureal Trendsetters in Canton 1767-1820’, Review of Culture, International Edition, no.45
(2014), pp.79-87. Lau Fung Ha, ‘Kouan wenhua—cong Guangdong de waixiaoyishu tantao jindai
zhongxi wenhua de xianghu guanzhao’ [Trade Port Culture-to Explore the Mutual Perception
between China and the West in Modern Era through Canton’s Export Art] (Ph.D. thesis, 2012, The
Chinese University of Hong Kong); Paul A. Van Dyke, Maria Kar-wing Mok, Images of the
Canton Factories 1760–1822: Reading History in Art (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press,
2015). Rosalien van der Poel, ‘Made for Trade - Made in China. Chinese export paintings in Dutch
collections: art and commodity’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Leiden, 2016).
97 Van Dyke and Mok, Images of the Canton Factorie, pp.23-29.
98 Lau, ‘Trade Port Culture’, pp.94-103.
99 Van der Poel, ‘Made for Trade’.
100 Roberta Wue, Art Worlds: Artists, Images, and Audiences in Late Nineteenth-Century
Shanghai (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2014), p.144.
101 Lam Yip Peter, ‘Porcelain Manufacture Illustrations of the Qing Dynasty’ Journal of
Guangzhou Museum of Art, 1(2004), pp.21-49.

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