Page 137 - Made For Trade Chinese Export Paintings In Dutch Collections

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Figs. 4.43.a, b. and c. the big demand for this painting genre that was much wider audience (social and cultural). 78
Scenes from daily life, partly inspired by Western prints brought with it These examples circulating among a socially
street peddlers (from a well-organised mass production system. On and culturally broad audience with similar
album with 12 images), the other hand, the fact that this genre also subject matter (daily life and social customs in
anonymous, found its way from the Chinese tradition to the nineteenth-century Guangzhou) show the
watercolour on pith Cantonese export painting studios can be attractiveness of this genre for Chinese and
paper, 19th century, deduced from, among other things, the early Western buyers alike. Furthermore, convergence
33 x 22 cm, series of Royer watercolour albums in Museum of pictorial conventions (Chinese and Western)
Wereldmuseum Volkenkunde. This valuable treasure of visual and of the attitude of two different consumer
Rotterdam, inv.nos. material confirms this view in a convincing and groups (both attracted to this genre) makes the
4899.2., 4899.9. and tangible way. Moreover, research by Koon also distinction professional-amateur or export-
4899.11. suggests that the ‘open circuits’ of images of literati painters unnecessary. The fact that only a
Cantonese daily street life can also be analysed few Westerners were happy to operate in the
by “widening the scope of analysis to include Chinese artistic ‘open circuits’ is the reason,
this circuit’s domestic market.” 76 Koon’s work unfortunately, that they hardly ever (never?) saw
convincingly shows the historical connections original Huangs, Zhous, Dongs and Sus at that
between export paintings of this genre and the time. The Dutch, certainly did not bring them
representations of daily life and social customs home.
aimed at a local audience. 77 Her study includes In the Dutch collections, the paintings with
the convergence of different pictorial styles and scenes of daily life are, almost without
influences, as demonstrated by the set of images exception, executed in watercolours on pith
by Puqua (act. 1780-1800) for the export paper, on silk, or on ordinary Chinese paper.
market, alongside albums of street characters; (Figures 4.43. and 4.44.) The subtopics, which
amongst others: Huang Shen’s (1678-1772), for this study I have put under the heading ‘daily
Album of figures with street entertainers and life’ are: professions, peddlers and street
beggars, 1730; Zhou Kun’s (act. eighteenth
century), Album of paintings of life in a village
town, undated; Dong Qi’s (1772-1844), Album
of happiness in an age of peace, 1828 and 1831;
and Su Liupen’s (act. c. mid-nineteenth century),
Album of street characters, circa 1843. Figures Fig. 4.45. Cover of one
Fig. 4.41. 4.41. and 4.42. give some examples of pictures of the 12 albums with
a. Lithograph after circulating in the ‘open circuits’. Koon uses each 24 images from
Dong Qi, Congee Clunas’ terms ‘closed’ and ‘open’ to describe the the Royer Collection,
seller from Taiping iconic artistic circuits of early nineteenth-century anonymous, 1773-1776,
huanle tu, pictures by Guangzhou. A closed circuit was characterised 34 x 37 cm,
Dong Qi, text edited by by a limited circulation, where the use of Museum Volkenkunde/
Xu Zhihao. Shanghai: cultural goods was socially delineated to Nationaal Museum van
Xuelin chubanshe, establish ‘boundaries’. In contrast, an open Wereldculturen,
2003, 18. circuit, allowed for a greater circulation of inv.no. RV-360-378-A/1
b. Zhou Kun, Barrel artistic products, including paintings, and for a to 378-L/12.
maker from Album of
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paintings of life in a
76 Koon 2014, 24.
village town, Palace
77 Ibid., 59-68.
Museum, Beijing.
78 Clunas 1997, 46-48.