Page 19 - Made For Trade Chinese Export Paintings In Dutch Collections

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Research questions historical backgrounds in which they were made
By taking their use value through time and space or used? How can we relate them as material
into account, the overarching point of Made for cultural objects, as actants, to human agency?
Trade is that Chinese export paintings can be What does the transcultural exchange of these
simultaneously construed as artworks and as artworks say about their meaning and use value?
commodities. Thus, when we evaluate the Dutch How did their worth in terms of value circulate
collections, it is legitimate to ask which values across the realms of history and were there
they carry (commodity/export, historic, artistic, significant moments of translation? Is their
and material) accumulated in their use value. translatability “a value in itself or only a product
In other words, I will argue that by treating of repeated exchange and negotiation in the
18 this art genre as a class in its own right (art and translation process?” 20 To get answers to these
commodity at the same time), the Dutch questions, we must unravel the total trajectory
collections possess these characteristics. The of these works, all the way from their origin to
omnipresent commodity aspect of these their current position. Consequently, in this
paintings, produced in a very specific cultural process of disentanglement, this research focuses
and economic (trade) context, does not preclude on their transnational character; that is, how
that they are art. To support this argument, these paintings link producers and consumers
I had to find answers to derivative, additional across national boundaries, from ancient times
questions like: How did the use value of these to the present day.
paintings accrue or dwindle over time, from
their production in Canton to their current Sources
consumer situation in Dutch public museum This research uses multifarious, primary and
collections? Can they be simultaneously secondary sources of a diverse nature.
considered as commodities and artworks at both Primary sources
ends of the scale? Therefore, it is appropriate to 1. Firstly, a wealth of information can be
ask: what is it that is being recognised in the extracted from the paintings themselves. Visiting
history of Chinese export paintings? Is it prior the Dutch collections for study and having the
human action that makes these works of art material pass through my hands gave me the
valuable? Is it the degree of rarity that derives opportunity to discover much new data.
from their historical origins? Or, perhaps a more 2. ‘Evidence-giving’, written primary Western
relevant question is, does circulation and, as a sources, such as travel literature and accounts
result, the accumulation of a further history in of contemporary eyewitnesses. Although, the
the form of a pedigree of former owners and descriptions may often explain more about their
their stories, further enhance their value? nineteenth century-authors than their Chinese
Another query could be, can an object in a subjects, they are essential proof finding
‘frozen’ condition accrue value in any way or material, providing useful information on the
does this status mean exactly the opposite, i.e. modus operandi of Chinese export painting
a value-dwindle? Whatever the answers to these practice and its products. Quotes from these
questions are, we can prudently assume that the sources are used troughout this dissertation and
fact that these paintings are mostly kept in show the ways in which they produced specific
museums – in the wider Dutch system of and selective knowledge on China for an
categories appreciated institutes to keep intended audience at that time.
‘meaningful things’ like treasured, tangible, 3. The user- or consumer-end approach in
material culture – means that Chinese export Made for Trade also demands the use of another
painting as an art genre has a high use value. 18 type of material: archival documents. These
And, thus, are an important part of Dutch information sources are scattered widely over
material cultural heritage. different genres and tend to be uneven in quality
Apart from the physical presence of these and usefulness. On the one hand, various kinds
paintings, there is also what Pieter ter Keurs calls of documents in national, provincial, municipal
an “ideological presence.” 19 Will research on the and family archives, and the archive of the
collections teach us about the cultural and Netherlands Trading Society (letters, private

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18 Chinese export paintings in the Netherlands are kept in either national ethnology museums, in navy and
maritime museums, in museums with a regional or municipal function, or museums that are defined as major
national art museums.
19 Ter Keurs 2006, 1.
20 Liu (ed.) 1999, 2.