Page 114 - Made For Trade Chinese Export Paintings In Dutch Collections

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Chapter 4 18-10-2016 15:53 Pagina 49

Inventory of the

Dutch collections

An aggregate amount of sets, albums, various genres and multiple ways of seeing
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4.1. corpus’ value and to bring together the
Introduction documentary sources and the paintings involved,
This chapter focuses on the newly formed corpus I follow Gerritsen’s idea that both entities
of Chinese export paintings in Dutch public (sources and paintings) should not be seen
collections. I have compiled this corpus, which as distinct, but rather as part of a continuum.
is revealed for the first time in this dissertation, These paintings appear to us in both their
over the past few years, by combing through material form and in textual records in which,
archives and museum collections, conducting as Gerritsen writes in a reference to objects from
fieldwork (interviews and hands-on research on the past: “our imagination conjures their form,
the paintings), studying historical documentary and what matters more for our historical
sources and analysing scholarly literature on the understanding is how we ‘read’ both kinds of
1
subject. The Dutch collections, I argue, are artefacts.” To this day, the content of the
worth cherishing more creatively and should images of Chinese export paintings is still ‘read’
certainly become part of future museum policy. by many as a representation of material referents
Accordingly, to advance their current state, my (real or imagined) in China. We know that the
research discloses the variety of genres and images were not generally scenes painted from
media that make up the vast corpus. Its diversity reality, but rather idealised, composite copies of
demands a multidisciplinary approach that can earlier paintings, borrowed from fellow-painters
contribute to a critical understanding of their or examples from the Chinese painting tradition.
meaning and use value, both as artworks and I concur with the British social and cultural
as commodities. historian Peter Burke that this ‘quoting’ of
As briefly mentioned in Chapter 2, to evaluate another image is problematic when researchers
2
the paintings themselves, which is the core of use paintings as reliable evidence. Much more
this fourth chapter, Made for Trade explores than an original representation of the subject,
their ‘sites’ and ‘modalities’. That is, among the artistic value of such copies was dependent
other elements, a study of the image itself, the on the complexity of the image and the quality
3
technological, compositional and social aspects, of the artistic execution. The paintings, both
with an addition of ‘genre’ or ‘subject matter’ as individually and as a whole, point to a collective
a modality. We will see that, depending on the idea in the West about what China represented.
genre and the (technical) material, different In other words, Chinese export painting allows
social effects and value accruements are at stake. us to imagine some aspects of the past more
In addition to this structured mapping of the vividly, by simultaneously conveying information
corpus, the conclusion of this chapter includes a and giving pleasure. Moreover, beyond the
discussion on apparent truthfulness as a value image itself, it conformed, to some extent, with
component in constructing an ‘image of China’ the prevailing Western visual culture, wherein
at the time of production and thereafter; an this kind of painting was ‘read’ by many as a
image constructed from the various themes that representation of reality. The images were what
were painted over and over again. most Westerners thought China looked like. Or,
Furthermore, to grasp the totality of the as William Shang explains: “It helped Westerners

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1 Gerritsen & Riello 2015, 6.
2 Burke 2001, 96-97.
3 Tillotson 1987, 77.