Page 160 - Made For Trade Chinese Export Paintings In Dutch Collections

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paved walks, dwarf walls in all directions, with
lattice-work or ornamental openings in them, in
order to give views of the scenery beyond; halls,
summer-houses, and alcoves, ponds or small
lakes with zigzag walks over them – in short, an
endeavour to make small things appear large,
and large things small, and everything
Chinese.” 170

Fortune’s writings clearly direct a Western gaze
on the things he observed, full of Eurocentric
superiority about his ideas about what is nice,
what is art, and what are the right criteria for
considering something to be beautiful. With such
recordings, Fortune gave voice to his haughty
and disdainful attitude towards his Chinese host
and his premises.
The clean, airy and colourful Chinese interior
scenes in the Dutch collections present, in
particular, houses and buildings belonging to the
Chinese elite. Museum Volkenkunde owns five
late eighteenth-century reverse glass paintings
featuring this subject that, in 1883, were
conveyed from the Royal Cabinet of Rarities and
which belong to a larger set of nineteen copies.
In addition, two companion pieces, on long-term
loan from the so-called Leembruggen Collection
from the mid-1850s (Figures 4.83. and 4.84.),
and one late nineteenth-century reverse glass
painting, gifted by the heirs of Reinders Folmer
(more in Chapter 5.3), are present in this Leiden
museum. 171

Portraits
In the eighteenth century, portrait art in Europe
was at its peak. To sit as a model for a portraitist
was appreciated as a self-aware and prestigious
thing to do. Later, in the nineteenth century, a Figs. 4.83 and 4.84. Two
(self-) portrait was more representative of the paintings by Chinese export painters. 173 Until
garden scenes with two
social-political status of the person depicted and approximately 1850, most people portrayed had
women at a veranda
created the ‘portrait gallery’ phenomenon. In to sit for the master; then, with the advent of
(companion pieces),
China, by contrast, portrait art was already an photography in Canton, everyone could supply a
anonymous, oil on
important practice in the Han Dynasty (206 CE daguerreotype or a photograph, which could
canvas, 1845-1855,
to 221). However, as Vinograd indicates in then be competently copied by one or more
60.5 x 46.5 cm,
Boundaries of the self, Chinese portraits, 1600- export painters in oil.
Museum Volkenkunde/
1900, the majority of surviving portraits date It is known that Guan Zoilin (Spoilum, act. Nationaal Museum van
from after 1600. 172 1765-1805) had been painting portraits of
Wereldculturen,
Portraits of Western merchants and ships Westerners or their family members in Canton
inv.nos. RV-B3-9 and 10.
officers and those of Chinese hong merchants since 1774. In Voyages made in the years 1788
(Mowqua, Howqua, Mingqua, Fatqua, Keying, and 1789 from China to the North West coast of
to name a few) were mostly executed as oil America, John Meares (c. 1756-1809), a British
---
170 Fortune 1857, 75-76 and 218.
171 Reverse glass paintings: from set of 19 (1785-1790): inv.nos. 360-1119, 360-1123, 360-1127, 360-1129 and 360-1131;
from Reinders Folmer heirs (1860-1900): inv.no. 6166-6. Oil paintings Leembruggen: inv.nos. B3-9 and B3-10.
172 Vinograd 1992, 15.
173 Crossman 1991, 35. Downing 1838; facsimile, 1972, 114. Borget 1845, 56-58. Lavollée 1853, 358-364.