Page 119 - Made For Trade Chinese Export Paintings In Dutch Collections

64 pag:Opmaak 1
18-10-2016 15:53 Pagina 54
roos boek 065-128 d

contributes to the individual images within such
a set or album accruing value. Together, the
images form a narrative that, in a logical and
coherent manner, makes the unknown ‘exotic’
scenes familiar and thus tells a meaningful story.
As a kind of ethnographic souvenir, albums
with titles such as ‘costumes of China’ or ‘daily
life in China’ are, as Yeewan Koon calls them in
A Defiant Brush, “compelling ways of
translating China.” 16 In contrast, an album can
118 also be a collection of unrelated individual
single-sheets or a programmed sequence of
images, eclectically assembled, bound together consists of 19 reverse glass paintings,
Fig. 4.2. The quay of and covered with paper or cardboard, silk, documented in detail in Sensitive plates. 18 This
Canton (from set of 19), brocade, lacquerwork or genuine leather. Most set of oil paintings (Figures 4.2. and 4.3.),
anonymous, Chinese export watercolours were bound as an probably produced between 1785-1790,
oil on glass, 1785-1790, album or sold as a set of twelve paintings, as is contains elements suggesting a strong link with
52.5 x 81 cm, the case for many of those found in the Dutch this period; for example, the flags of Western
Museum Volkenkunde/ collections. As we know from Huang and countries, the house construction, or the types
Nationaal Museum van Sargent, the word ‘dozen’ was introduced into of ships. Similarities in technique, quality and
Wereldculturen, China, where it was later referred to as yī dá size lead us to surmise that all these paintings
inv.no. RV-360-1116. (一打). Some sets, however, were composed of were created at approximately the same time.
thirteen pictures. Perhaps this was a unique The set has an interesting provenance back
selling point: “buy a dozen, get one free!” 17 to 1824. Following a request to the Minister of
Hereafter, I will explore the different sorts of Education, Arts and Sciences, and after a Royal
noteworthy sets (sets of oil paintings, sets of Decree of 17 April 1824, the then director of the
albums, and single albums) of the Dutch corpus. Royal Cabinet of Rarities, Van den Kasteele, was
able to buy the set. 19 Paid for from state
- Sets of oil paintings coffers, the set enriched the Royal Cabinet from
The Museum Volkenkunde owns three 1 May 1824 to its surcease in 1883. 20 After
noteworthy sets of oil paintings. They all deserve more than a century, the set was again rightly
attention for a variety of reasons. The first set assigned value by Van Dongen, former China
curator of Volkenkunde Museum. He researched
all aspects of the different Chinese subject
matters represented in the paintings, including
Fig. 4.3. Kowtowing their technical and compositional aspects;
(from set of 19), moreover, he had them restored and
anonymous, subsequently organised an exhibition. In 2001,
oil on glass, 1785-1790, they were put on public display in the museum
52.5 x 81 cm, and also at Akzo Nobel Coatings in Sassenheim
Museum Volkenkunde/ for some months; an informative catalogue to
Nationaal Museum van accompany the exhibition was published. Van
Wereldculturen, Dongen’s efforts must be understood as a
inv.no. RV-360-1118. positive exception given the prevailing museum

---
16 Koon 2014, 58. Yeewan Koon is Associate Professor at the Department of Fine Arts at The University of Hong
Kong.
17 Huang & Sargent (eds.) 1999, 18.
18 Inv.nos. 360-1113 to 360-1131. Van Dongen 2001.
http://volkenkunde.nl/sites/default/files/attachements/sensitive_plates.pdf.
19 NA 2.04.01, 4855, 12 April 1824, and 26 April 1824, no.99, A-series.
12 April 1824: “Voordragt aan ZM om autorisatie te verleenen tot het aankoopen, voor het Koninklijk Kabinet van
Zeldzaamheden van eene verzameling van schilderijen uit China ten getale van 19 stuks.”
26 April 1824: “Besluit ZM, d.d. 17 april, n. 115, de minister magtigende tot den aankoop van voorwerpen, ten behoeve
van het Koninklijk Kabinet van Zeldzaamheden ‘s Hage, volgens bijgevoegde nota.”
20 NA 2.04.01, 4925, Index 1824, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Fifth Dept. Education, Arts and Sciences 1815-1848.
“Executie 1 mei 8.F”; NA 2.04.01, 4882, 1 May 1824, F-series; NA 2.04.01, 4917, 1 May 1824.