Page 205 - Made For Trade Chinese Export Paintings In Dutch Collections

96 pag:Opmaak 1
roos boek 193-288 d

Fig. 6.11. A Manchu 18-10-2016 15:41 Pagina 12
family in tented
quarters, anonymous,
oil on canvas, c. 1800,
78 x 112 cm, Tuyet
Nguyet and Stephen
Markbreiter Collection.

Fig. 6.12. Winter land-
scape, anonymous,
oil on canvas, c. 1800,
90.2 x 146.1 cm,
Martyn Gregory
Gallery, London.

Fig. 6.13. Chinese
emperor keeping
promote the items for sale on their website with much about the current use value assigned to
audience in a winter
statements such as “[t]heir quality, their them. Taking this current cultural context into
landscape, anony-
provenance, their history and what they consideration, I must first ‘decode’ them, before
mous, oil on glass, 25
symbolise make them exceptional.” It is we can recontextualise or ‘localise’ them as
c. 1804, 144 x 221 x 6 cm,
noteworthy that this particular oil painting, translated and integrated items, in order to
Victoria and Albert
though in much better condition than the Leiden evaluate their remarkable artistry, which, in
Museum, 26
ones, featured in a category of expensive and turn, determines their future use value.
inv.no. P.11:1, 2-1936.
very special items. Certainly, I would argue that Therefore, they need to be rediscovered in order
their rarity assigns value to them. I will construct to make the move to a ‘new’ material complex.
Fig. 6.14. Winter scene
my argument hereafter along the lines of value This set of skilfully produced paintings functions
with distant fortress,
accruement through a range of ‘sites’, i.e. the as an actant insofar as they triggered me to take
anonymous, oil on
paintings’ cultural biographies, the images action to revivify them and to transfer them into
canvas, c. 1800,
themselves, the dynamic cultural interactions, inspirational, educational and aesthetically
55.7 x 89 cm, Royal
inspiration and the act of appropriation, pleasing ‘new’ art objects. What do we know
Pavilion & Museums,
translation as token, and a counter expertise about these idyllic landscape paintings in
Brighton & Hove,
exercise by specialists. The conclusion is that all Museum Volkenkunde?
inv.no. FA000249.
these ‘sites’ benefit the paintings’ value. Firstly, we know that seven of the winter
views in the Leiden museum were commissioned
Fig. 6.15. Archers at a 27
Value accruement through cultural biographies by Royer and are dated to before 1807. As is
winter camp, anony-
The plight of these artworks, stowed away in treated in Chapter 5, it is known that he had
mous, oil on canvas,
painting racks in the Leiden museum depot, says assistance in assembling his Chinese collection
c. 1800, 74.7 x 111 cm,
private collection.
Fig. 6.16. Snow scene
with a Chinese family,
anonymous, oil on
canvas, c.1810,
75.2 x 110.3 cm, Fukuoka
Asian Art Museum,
inv.no. 726.
---
25 http://www.christies.com/The-Exceptional-Sale-25924.aspx (consulted in March 2016).
26 Burke 2009-b, 69-77.
27 Van Campen 2000-b, 323; Van der Poel 2007, 41-45.