Page 168 - Made For Trade Chinese Export Paintings In Dutch Collections

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contexts. This use value aspect of the painting the paintings were produced about 200 years ago
genre is artistic and historic alike. We know that and that my interpretation of these images takes
these export commodities, featuring subject place today. The contemporary Chinese material
matter outside the Western tradition, sold like environment has changed dramatically and is
hot cakes, even though their reliability as very different from the old one; in many cases,
witnesses was questioned later in the nineteenth the latter has entirely disappeared. This changed
century. The bright colours and the ‘exotic’ local material cultural context is problematic:
appearance of the represented topics made the “The ‘old’ practices related to the objects (that is,
images all the more valuable. There is, then, the the representations of subjects on the paintings)
question of what Burkes calls “degrees or modes in the collections can no longer be documented”,
of reliability” and “reliability for different to cite the observation on Engganese old material 167
purposes.” 202 It is becoming increasingly clear culture by Ter Keurs in Condensed reality. 207 The
that in the nineteenth century and beyond, the same limit applies to my research. It is impossible
paintings were, primarily, acquired and cherished to study former daily life in Guangzhou in reality.
not for their historic and informative value, but We must rely heavily on literary descriptions and
because of the longing for the exotic and images as recorded acts of eye witnessing.
romantic image of ‘the East’. Neither can we experience the steps taken in the
The precision with which many of the processes of, for instance, the production of tea,
paintings were executed, however, is still seen by or find the geographic spots of the represented
many scholars as an important element in terms harbours and ships, and so on. This situation
of their significance as historical documents and places a severe limitation on this search for
as being useful for China historians, “either as a interpretation of specific contents. This is another
type of source and discourse, or as a potential reason to throw off the yoke of interpretation. In
instrument for the expression of historical addition to this limit, it is actually beyond the
knowledge.” 203 There is likely a wealth of (other) bounds of possibility to identify one or more
information to be mined from them. It is ‘material complexes’ in Cantonese export
possible, as Henriot and Yeh contribute, to paintings that can serve as suitable entrances to a
unfold a narrative from one image that will help better understanding of Chinese culture. Indeed,
to question both how a painting came into the there are no, or hardly any, primary or secondary
hands of the researcher and how it facilitates the sources about production or consumption (value
investigation of historical questions. 204 As a accruement to the paintings) by Chinese
researcher of Chinese export paintings, I too need contemporaries.
to filter my own inquiry and locate the painting My research for Made for Trade with Dutch
in its appropriate social context. Henriot and Yeh museum collections as a valuable starting point,
provide the insight that allows me to address focuses on the consumption side (audiences)
these works of representation “with embodied along the particular trajectories of Chinese
viewers and responses, rather than merely seeing export paintings, after they travelled beyond the
transparent reflections of a fictional ‘real’.” 205 Cantonese trading context to that of a Dutch
Thus, as Graeber also acknowledges, any museum collection. As will be seen when I treat
description we produce of a real painting will some cultural biography issues of specific
necessarily be partial and incomplete. 206 In this paintings in the next chapter, dealing with
view, the positionality of the researcher is another consumers’ ideas and inspirations alike, this
point that must be taken into account. To make a focus provides many more opportunities to
statement about the meaning of the depicted disclose a number of active mechanisms in value
scenes, it is important for us to understand that accruement in the course of their ‘social’ afterlife.

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202 Burke 2001, 184
203 Henriot & Yeh 2013, xiii. A major other reference in the field of ‘visual culture’ regarding the subject is the
project Visualizing Cultures of MIT, with, amongst others, its unit: Rise & fall of the Canton trade system. This is a
proper example of image-driven scholarship. Visualizing Cultures has positioned itself as a nexus between the
institutions that house image collections and the scholars who would like to use them for research purposes.
Publishing on MIT’s revolutionary OpenCourseWare Visualizing Cultures has worked with many institutions to
negotiate online publication of images for educational purposes using a creative common license.
204 Henriot & Yeh 2013, xiii.
205 Ibid.
206 Graeber 2001, 53.
207 Ter Keurs 2006, 133.