Page 77 - Made For Trade Chinese Export Paintings In Dutch Collections

64 pag:Opmaak 1
18-10-2016 15:52 Pagina 12
roos boek 065-128 d

according to Guan Shu, on the right:
一帘花影云拖地 (yì lián huā yĭng yún tuō dì)
and on the left: 半夜 声月在天 (bàn yè
shū shēng yuè zài tiān), which means ‘Study until
midnight, the moon is still in the sky, but the
sound of reading books can be heard.’ 67
Additionally, the horizontal sign, from right to
left, reads 靜觀自得 (jìng guān zì dé), saying
‘Observe quietly/peacefully and be content’.
Both the vertical couplets and horizontal board
76 are related to education, so, according to Guan,
they are often found in schools, and are designed
to stimulate children to study hard. These texts
Fig. 3.2. Lamqua’s are appropriate in this context, too, with
painting studio apprentices to painting master Tingqua learning
‘handsome face- from this skilled employer. Furthermore, the
painter’, engraving balcony with flowering plants, benches and high
after Auguste Borget, open windows makes you feel you can be part of
1845. the scene. We can imagine customers meeting
each other on the balcony while waiting for their
painting to be finished. Tingqua applied a linear
and a bird’s eye perspective, with an elevated
view of the studio from above, to show off his
skills and to give the watercolour the right
depth. Architectural aspects of the neighbouring
houses are clearly visible through the open front
windows. The view outside makes clear that we
are not on the ground floor. Although Youqua
executed his painting with diverse perspectives
and no shade-working, it remains visually
attractive with ‘exotic’ elements in sparkling
colours. Most importantly, back home in
Europe, it would portrays more than words
could express.
The studio of the renowned master painter
Lamqua (act. 1820s-1855) could be found in
Old China Street. Figure 3.2. shows the wooden Downing’s records (1836-1837), we know that
façade of his shop-house, drawn by Auguste in the painter’s studio “a stranger had access to
Borget during his stay in Canton in 1845, with any part where he may choose to wander, and
sliding windows of finely carved fretwork. different branches of the business are transacted
During the day, when the windows were often on each of the floors.” 69 Assumingly, this was
pulled back, as the drawing shows, visitors could also the case in Lamqua’s day’s about ten years
see the bowed heads of the painters holding their later. William Heine (1827-1885), the official
brushes and pencils. artist of Commodore Matthew C. Perry's
The detailed descriptions of the layout of his expedition to Japan in 1853-54, wrote on one
small studio, reveal that it comprised three of his drawings of Old China Street and its
storeys and had a shop displaying paintings inhabitants: “Mr Lainbque, handsome face-
ready for sale on the ground floor. 68 In all other painter invites customers to be either portrayed
Cantonese stores, which often only consisted of in oil colors, after the fashion of the Fan-kwaes
two storeys, Westerners were only granted access (foreign barbarians) or to purchase his Chinese
to the shop part on the ground floor, but this paintings on rice paper, representing Chinese
worked differently in the artists’ studios. Via customs and manners; or birds, flowers, and

---
67 Email 7 June 2016. Guan Shu, teacher of Chinese language at Leiden University Academic Language Centre,
has been very helpful with the translation of the texts on the blue signs on the side of Tingqua’s studio.
68 Downing 1838; facsimile, 1972, 93-114. Borget 1845, 56-59. La Vollée 1852, 358-359.
69 Downing 1838, facsimile, 1972, 92.