Page 95 - Made For Trade Chinese Export Paintings In Dutch Collections

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with the longhaired, soft brushes. The Figures
3.3. to 3.6., 3.19. and 3.20., which are made by
both Chinese and Western artists, provide
supporting evidence for the way in which export
painters applied the paint. This method changed,
depending on which medium they were working
with. Canvasses for oil paintings, for example,
stood vertically on the artist’s easel or stands on
benches, but for watercolours and reverse glass
paintings the paints were mostly applied
94 horizontally. Interestingly, the painters held their
brushes at an angle of 90 degrees to the forearm,
with the brush hairs directly on the surface to be
Fig. 3.17.a. Gilded frame,
painted and the painting arm resting on a flat
elaborately carved.
block of wood. This method was also used in
previous conservation or restoration treatments ink calligraphy.
or if the painting was cut from a larger work.” 140
Original tenters can also reveal something about The paintings – formal aspects
the age of a painting; this makes the loss of Looking at the research corpus, we can divide
original frames extra unfortunate. the paintings into different categories and into a
There is no direct evidence about the sort of range of qualities, all produced to sell on various
brushes (single and multi-headed) that were used markets and to diverse clients. In the Dutch
for painting with oils or watercolours. It is collections we can distinguish unique singular
assumed, because no information exists to the paintings, identical pairs on different media,
contrary, that different types were used and that companion pieces, obvious sets of oil paintings
export artists used the same brushes as artists or gouaches and albums with watercolours.
who painted in the Chinese amateur style. These They are executed in oil on canvas, paper, Bodhi
were brushes made with fur or hair with varying tree (Ficus Religiosa) leaves, bone or copper, as a
degrees of hardness, such as weasel–, marten–, reverse glass painting, watercolour or gouache
wolf–, deer–, goat– and rabbit hair, mixed with on regular Chinese or European paper, or on
hemp. These hairs were carefully embedded or Chinese pith paper made from the Tetrapanax
glued into a cone shape, or onto a bamboo, Papyrifera (tóng cáo zhĭ). 142 Almost all export
wood or even ivory or porcelain shaft. 141 The paintings, either individually authored by a
brushes with stiffer hairs were probably used for well-known Chinese master or produced anony-
the outlines, while the watercolours were applied mously, represent a Chinese subject matter.

Fig. 3.17.b. Chinese
Chippendale frame.

Fig. 3.18. Chinese richly
decorated frame.

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140 http://www.conservation-wiki.com/wiki/PSG_Stretchers_and_Strainers_-_I._Introduction#ref2.
141 Clunas 1984, 38.
142 Ibid., 15. Pith paper is often wrongly called ‘rice paper’. This paper has nothing to do with rice, but it is probably
called rice paper because people believed that the rice plant was used in the manufacture of pith paper, or because
it looks like the edible rice paper that is used in cooking. Currently, a soft type of Chinese paper is sold in the West
as ‘rice paper’.