Page 21 - Made For Trade Chinese Export Paintings In Dutch Collections

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correspondence with descendants of first owners notions emerge when we study the westward
of Chinese export paintings. These contacts were movement of these paintings. The third part
intended to gain first-hand information about outlines, in tandem with prevailing ideas about
people’s motivation for acquiring Chinese export Chinese export painting and with historical
paintings and why, at a certain moment, they facts, the unique characteristics of the modus
were separated from them. Furthermore, a operandi of the export painting practice as far
number of museum curators were also asked as known today. Lastly, the fourth part will give
about their current and past policy in relation to different views on this shared cultural visual
these objects. repertoire, as this stock of material ‘emblems
of the historical China trade’ can be adequately
20 Secondary sources named.
1. The existing body of literature on the subject To contribute to a critical understanding of
– the prevailing discourse – has been studied in the corpus, on the basis of literary and archival
detail to locate this new research ‘here and now’. research, field survey, and applying
2. Literature dealing with issues of icono- methodological tools of the various ‘sites’ and
graphy and symbolism has been used to interpret ‘modalities’ at stake, Chapter 4 maps the variety
the paintings in case of dating issues, stylistic of the large Dutch collections through a
matters, mutual influences, and to find possible qualitative research on genres and subject matter
iconographic predecessors and answers to of the images themselves. Striking examples and
questions on symbols prevailing in views and other compelling characteristics of the Dutch
standpoints in China and the Netherlands during situation will be identified. Finally, the art-
the research period, i.e. from the mid-eighteenth commodity aspect and the allusion to truth and
century to today. reality will be discussed.
The two final chapters of this dissertation
Through in-depth visual analysis of the corpus turn attention to the trajectory that moves from
and critical analysis of primary and secondary the Cantonese painting practice to the
literature on the subject Made for Trade shows contemporary practice of museum storerooms
awareness of the specific purpose for which the in the Netherlands. Chapter 5 makes clear that
images and paintings were produced and sources writing cultural biographies of Chinese export
were written. paintings is useful in terms of letting these
transcultural artworks ‘speak to us’ and for
The structure of this dissertation discovering how and when in the
This dissertation is divided into six chapters, commodification process they accrue value –
concluding remarks and three appendices. then, now and in future museum practices.
The first chapter sketches the horizon against Or, on the contrary, how their values dwindled
which I position myself in the discourse. or even led to a ‘frozen’ situation, i.e.
The interdisciplinary theoretical frame of singularisation of these paintings by their
reference for this dissertation is outlined in owners, either at a museum or at a private
Chapter 2. It draws from the academic fields of home, de-commodified, on-hold and not
art history, anthropology, history, archaeology accessible for interested viewers. This fifth
and museum studies. As will be addressed more chapter, which also presents a reversal process
comprehensively in this second chapter, theories of re-commodification (or revivification), deals
on visual analysis, concepts of commodification with the study of the lifecycles of a selection of
and value, visual economy, agency and paintings, as Kate Hill explains in the
materiality, and transnationality and cultural Introduction of Museum and biographies, “in
translation proved to be adequate research order to fully appreciate the way their meaning
frames for the study of Chinese export paintings developed and changed in different situations.” 24
and to build up my argument in this dissertation. In order to discover the extent of translatability
Chapter 3 consists of four parts. The first part of Chinese export paintings in a storytelling
frames the trading context, in which Chinese format, Chapter 6 will show that ‘translating’
export painting originated and flourished, with a them makes it possible to say things about the
brief overview of the Dutch sea trading practice artistic value as a main component of their use
in the late eighteenth to mid-nineteenth value, after they have left the Cantonese painting
centuries. Secondly, this chapter discusses the studio and reached Western consumers. This
terms ‘globalisation’ and ‘glocalisation’ as both requires a close examination of the site of the

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24 Hill 2012, 5.