AFA Summer 2018

Summer 126 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com winterthur primer F or several centuries after Portugal established direct trading routes with China in the 1500s, Westerners clamored for the luxurious silks, fragrant teas, and delicate porcelains increasingly available to them. They became fascinated with the exotic land they would never visit, their curiosit y never f ully satiated with written descriptions from travelers to the Far East. Beginning in the early 1700s, Chinese artists created watercolor and gouache views of landscapes, people, and more, sometimes in sets, for export to Europe, and directly to America after 1784. 1 One popular set of four scenes depicted the route taken by Western ships sailing to Canton. The route began at the mouth of the Pearl River, in the Portuguese settlement of Macao, where supercargoes bargained with customs officials and hired local pilots to guide them further along. Boca Tigris, or Tiger’s Mouth, where the Pearl River narrows, was the second port before stopping in Whampoa. Ships officers and crew remained here, while supercargoes boarded Chinese junks onto which their Western merchandise was loaded for transport for the remainder of the twelve miles in shallow waters. The final destination was the Western-style trading offices, also known as hongs or factories, situated just outside Canton’s city walls (Fig. 1). Traders were generally restricted to this quarter mile area while transacting business. Longer series of twelve or more images provided a visual explanat ion of how porc ela i ns, si l k s, and te a s were manufactured, decorated, cultivated, packed, and shipped. 2 Other well-represented subjects were flora and fauna, figures in native costumes, boats, furniture and other household goods, and commercial and domestic interiors (Fig. 2). Scenes with tradesmen, peddlers, performers, festivals, and even criminals being punished were also painted. While many scenes were idealized, botanical drawings for the express purpose of scientific study display a high level of detail, even illustrating withered and damaged leaves (Fig. 3). The sheer number of extant watercolors revea ls the magnitude of this artistic industry. However, little is known about the artists who toiled, mostly anonymously, in Canton workshops conveniently located near the Western factories. Their work was mass-produced and not highly valued in their own country, resulting in few signed items. 3 Ascribing dates to drawings is also problematic, although there are clues. Silk was Picturing China by Jeanne Solensky Fig. 1: Trading offices in Canton identified by residents’ national flags, ca. 1820–1840. Watercolor on pith paper, 8¼ x 11 inches. Framed with silk ribbon. Bound in album with three other port scenes (Collection 111, 03x144).