Page 147 - Made For Trade Chinese Export Paintings In Dutch Collections

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bought by members of scientific expeditions of
Western horticultural societies and ethnographic
and natural history museums. But the bulk of
the later paintings, commissioned by individual
Western customers, with their imperfections
and creatively applied colours, and additions
of insects and butterflies, were not accurate
and surely did not represent actual species.
(Figure 4.60.) They had nothing to do with
science, but were purely decorative and fanciful
146 depictions and “of little scientific value to ento-
mologists.” 119
In the Netherlands, there are a large number
Fig. 4.60. Mandarin
of albums and loose leaves of watercolours of Production processes of silk, porcelain and tea
ducks (from set of 12),
Chinese flora and fauna (butterflies, birds, Amongst the Dutch collections are idealised
anonymous,
ducks, insects and fish) present in the collections paintings that depict the production of silk,
watercolour on pith
of three museums. Museum Volkenkunde holds porcelain and tea, the major products of the
paper, 1830-1865,
many more fanciful watercolours of this genre China trade. The representation of the
22 x 34 cm, Museum 120
than just the extensive Royer Collection. manufacturing trajectory of Chinese trade
Volkenkunde/
(Figures 4.61.a to 4.61.d.) The SAB-City goods, divided into the individual steps of their
Nationaal Museum van
Archives and Athenaeum Library own six of the production, was one way that Westerners sought
Wereldculturen,
albums acquired in Batavia in the years 1851 to and, at the same time, organised knowledge of
inv.no. RV-1239-378e.
1856 by the former Dutch Governor General of China. The subject was relevant to almost
the Dutch East Indies, Duymaer van Twist, three everyone sailing to China in the seventeenth,
of which fit this genre. 121 (Figures 4.62.a. and eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There are a
4.62.b.) Lastly, the Tropenmuseum in number of special sets in Dutch museums too. 123
Amsterdam owns a beautiful set of twelve Thanks to, among other things, the observations
watercolours on pith paper with images of of the French missionary d’Entrecolles (1664-
butterflies, insects, flowers and fruits. 122 1741) regarding the porcelain town of
(Figures 4.63.a. and 4.63.b. Jingdezhen, it is clear that the representation of

Fig. 4.59. Cotton roses
and Mandarin ducks,
Gao Jianfu (1879-1951),
ink on paper.