Page 94 - Made For Trade Chinese Export Paintings In Dutch Collections

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developed sense of compositional design. In expansion purposes was used, as Figure 3.16
addition, the use of colour, as is shown by these shows.
examples, is lively and harmonious and this The frame was often made of hardwood and
testifies to the export artists’ quite developed sometimes painted black with a gilt edge. They
taste. Ting adds in this regard that Chinese could be elaborately carved wood and gilt
export painters often demonstrated Western frames (Figure 3.17.a.), but could also take the
conventions in their techniques with respect to form of a natural, flat frame with a bevelled
perspective and colour use. In landscape edge. Occasionally, there were rosettes or similar
paintings and harbour views this Western floral decorations applied to the corners. The
painting style was combined with a more typical most popular frame was the so-called Chinese
Chinese one in the representation of rocks, trees Chippendale. 138 (Figure 3.17.b.) This framed the 93
and mountains. 136 These were often rendered majority of the harbour views and portraits that
with traditionally Chinese simple but strong were produced between 1830 and 1880. The
brushstrokes, made with multiple-headed frames were mostly brown-black painted lacquer
brushes or by using minute dots. In this way, and had a flat inside edge that was worked with
artists showcased their skills in traditional and gilt or gold leaf. In the nineteenth century, there
higher regarded painting, before making their was another type of frame: a richly embellished
move to the new trade. This alternate use of and lavishly decorated openwork wooden frame
Western and Chinese painting techniques decorated with landscapes and Chinese figures in
frequently imbued the paintings with a strange, pavilions and gardens. 139 (Figure 3.18.)
mysterious, incoherent, but also fascinating As the American Institute for Conservation of
atmosphere. Art and Historic Works writes on their website:
“Stretchers and strainers are the foundation of a
Strainers, frames and brushes painting's structure. A thorough examination of
To reduce the movement of the canvas, the a stretcher or strainer can serve as a valuable
display of Chinese export oil paintings requires means of understanding the technique of the
supplementary support. The tenter to which artist, determining if the painting has undergone
the canvas of an export oil painting is attached
is a recognisable feature of a Chinese export
painting. 137 It is comprised of four parts of thin
wood, held together in the corners with two or
four bamboo pins, the so-called fixed-corner
strainer. (Figures 3.14. and 3.15.) In addition,
the inner edge of the frame is slightly bevelled,
so that about two to three centimetres is in
contact with the canvas. This contrasts with
the European tenter, which had corner pieces
that fitted perfectly against each other, and small
Figs. 3.14. and 3.15.
wooden wedges (keys) in the interior corners of
Original Chinese fixed-
the stretcher that could lengthen or shorten the
corner strainers.
construction if necessary. The fixed-corner
strainers cannot be expanded. This stiffness
often causes slackening of the canvas as it
impairs the textile fibres. Many of the Chinese
export oil paintings in Dutch collections have
become slack on their original strainer and a
number have been removed from their original
tenter and transferred to a new support. What
also happened frequently is that the canvas was Fig. 3.16. European
brought from China as a mere canvas and 19th century tenter
framed on its arrival in the Netherlands or in with two wedges in
Batavia. In most cases, a tenter with wedges for each corner.

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136 Ting 1982, 9.
137 Bradford 2005, 82.
138 Crossman 1991, 409.
139 Ibid.