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Yuanmingyuan in Eighteenth-century France 125

Figure 8.1 Sun Hu and Shen Yuan, Dongtian shenchu L天M處, no. 40 of the “40 Views of
the Yuanmingyuan,” woodcut, approx. 32 40 cm, Qing Imperial Workshops,
ca. 1745, from the album Différents Palais & Temples de la Chine, dessinés &
gravés a la Chine, compiled before 1769, Bibliothèque nationale de France,
Department of Prints and Photography, Réserve Oe-21 (C)-pet fol

European style in opaque and transparent watercolors on smooth white paper, almost
certainly a Chinese paper. Each painting bears a label in Chinese with a number and
the title of the particular “view.” Both the Royer and Bertin albums follow the same
order, although this order has little or nothing to do with the order of the original
“40 Views.” In both albums, the paintings are the work of a small number of artists,
and both are clearly the product of the same studio. While the painters generally
respect the overall compositions of the “40 Views,” they alter the landscapes and
often add details not found in other versions such as the Qianlong imperial woodcut
illustrations, which are, however, the ultimate source for the Bertin and Royer
albums. 16
The prints and paintings of the “40 Views” are associated with a number of texts,
including documents sent from Beijing by the Jesuit missionaries. By far the longest
text on the Yuanmingyuan among Bertin’s papers is an article entitled “Jardin de
yuen-ming-yuen” (the Yuanmingyuan garden). 17 There is no name attached to the
document, although I believe it to be the work of Father Jean-Joseph-Marie Amiot
(1718–1793), who was one of Bertin’s most prolific correspondents. 18 It begins with