Page 130 - Made For Trade Chinese Export Paintings In Dutch Collections

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paintings. The results of this research broadly fit
the globally recognised and widely agreed genres
(categories), of course guided by the specificities
of the Dutch situation. It is noted that, for
example, the manner of cataloguing Chinese
export watercolours in Dutch museums can
generally be compared with the practice in the
UK, as sketched by Clunas, where the following
subject headings and descriptions are employed:
‘domestic and other scenes illustrating Chinese
life’; ‘miscellaneous subjects; ‘the costume of
China’; ‘natural history’; and ‘trades and
occupations’. 56 According to Clunas, this
system suggests that Chinese export
watercolours in the nineteenth century were
valued principally for their illustrative worth,
“with any intrinsic artistic merits being less of cultural and trade relations, at work across Fig. 4.26. View of
regarded.” 57 Whether these paintings can thousands of kilometres, between the Golden Island (Nanking)
intrinsically be called ‘art’ or not, is not my main Netherlands and their trade zones all over Asia, (from album with
concern for this research, which principally specifically in China and Indonesia. The various 12 images of Chinese
focuses on various facets of the value-meaning of genres shaped an (distorted) image of those harbour cities),
the Dutch corpus as both artworks and countries, then and today. Most of them were anonymous,
commodities. tailor-made for Western customers. Before the watercolour on pith
The images under consideration are ‘coded’ genres are dealt with below, I recall the notion paper, c. 1850,
exhaustively (every aspect of the paintings is that, generally, the scenes are constructed, copied 25.3 x 34.7 cm (image),
covered by one genre) and exclusively (the and reconstructed, and sometimes even 25.7 x 35.2 cm (album),
genres do not overlap) where possible. Although creatively devised by the Chinese painter. When Maritime Museum
the distribution of the ‘codes’ appears unequal, I taking these aspects into consideration, we must Rotterdam,
was able to make a theorised connection evaluate the discourse on Chinese export inv.no. P1711-07.
between the genres and the broader cultural painting with great caution, especially when it is
context in which they are produced and presented as a veritable historical source.
consumed. I have divided the Dutch corpus into
the following overarching genres: Maritime subjects
• Maritime subjects (harbour views and ship portraits)
(harbour views and ship portraits); Oil paintings on canvas or as reverse glass
• Scenes of daily life painting with maritime subjects like harbour
(professions, peddlers and street performers, views and ship portraits make up a substantial
and local vessels); part of the Dutch collections. Maritime-,
• Figurine painting ethnographic- and art museums in the
(women and men, dignitaries and their attire); Netherlands own harbour views (singulars and
• Chinese flora and fauna
(including bird-and-flower painting);
• Production processes of silk, porcelain, tea
and rice;
• Landscapes Fig. 4.27. Image of
(winter views and river scenes); procession (from
• The imperial court; album with 72 images
• Interior and garden scenes; of various subject
• Portraits; matter), anonymous,
• Punishments and torture. watercolour on
Figure 4.28. shows the range of genres in the Chinese paper, c. 1850,
Dutch collections with their corresponding 38 x 46 cm, Maritime
quantities. Museum Rotterdam,
All these artworks were produced as a result inv.no. P4411-40.

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56 Clunas 1984.
57 Ibid., 99.