Page 146 - Made For Trade Chinese Export Paintings In Dutch Collections

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18-10-2016 15:45 Pagina 17
roos boek 129-192 d

145

Figs. 4.58.a. to 4.58.d.
Images of diverse
plants, rocks and trees
(from set of 12 albums
with each 100 images),
anonymous,
watercolour on paper,
1773-1776, 34 x 37 cm,
Royer Collection,
Museum Volkenkunde/
Nationaal Museum van
Wereldculturen,
inv.nos. clockwise:
RV-360-383-A/1,
383-B/2, 383-L/12 and
383-C/3.

the mustard seed garden (Jieziyuan huazhuan)
from 1679, for example, provided all kinds of
woodblock prints of plant motifs that export that were especially appreciated for their
painters could use. The individual modules decorative value, their design and their high
enabled the painter to create endless variations painterly quality. In other words, as Claypool
of different plants in a decorative manner. 116 argues in her article on the scientific gaze in
This idea is affirmed by much of the Leiden modern China, this subject matter is “an artistic
Royer Collection, with its images of rock, genre evolved by twists and turns from a
stones, grasses, herbs, minerals, waters, reed, scientifically motivated genre of empirical
plants, flowers and fruits. The examples description in early science.” 117 When, for
presented in the Figures 4.58.a. to 4.58.d. have example, analysing the insects paintings of Gao
many similar ‘colleagues’ in the identical Jianfu’s (1879-1951), like Claypool did, his
composition of some of the albums. Hands-on paintings, are “filtered and shaped by art
research gave me the strong impression that practices and modes of seeing in his [Gao Jianfu]
modules were used to produce duplicates or to hometown [Canton],” this genre reveals “a basic
design new scenes according the painter’s own truth about the ontological status of these kinds
taste. of images, where any assumed opposition
From the middle of the nineteenth century, the between pictures for trade and local
demand in China for scientific illustrations of representations of insects is completely
the natural history of China decreased and they undone.” 118 (Figure 4.59.) I certainly support
were usurped by, in particular, ink paintings. The the idea that the traditional Song ‘bird-and-
production of export paintings with this subject flower’ painting genre has evolved as a modern
matter, by contrast, continued at a rapid pace, science. This idea is legitimate as far as early
albeit in what appears to be more trivial versions works are concerned, i.e. botanical drawings
---
116 Ledderose 2000, 204.
117 Claypool 2015, 30.
118 Ibid., 38.