A large and rare painting of a mother and child, Qing dynasty, circa 1870 | 清 約1870年 母嬰圖 油畫 裝框

Charlotte Hortsmann and Gerald Godfrey, Ltd., Hong Kong.

來源

Charlotte Horstmann and Gerald Godfrey Ltd.，香港

Anthony Lawrence, The Taipan Traders: A Portrait of Hong Kong's days of youth from the finest collection of China Trade paintings, Hong Kong, 1992, pp. 88-89

出版

Anthony Lawrence，《The Taipan Traders: A Portrait of Hong Kong's days of youth from the finest collection of China Trade paintings》，香港，1992年，頁88-89

Expertly conceived and stunningly beautiful, the present example demonstrates high levels of technical mastery and competency, representing the zenith of Chinese oil paintings in the 18th and 19th centuries. The present painting belongs to a select group of oil paintings depicting a nursing scene, and at least three others of similar quality and size are published. According to H. A. Crosby Forbes in an article written for the Museum of the American China Trade, ‘Gift of Previously Unpublished China Trade Painting’, Newsletter, vol. 3, no. 12, March 1974, three examples were known at the time of publication: one, almost identical to the present example, but without the aubergine-ground robe hanging in the background, formerly in the collection of Forbes House Museum, Milton Massachusetts, now in the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts; a second example depicting the central figure with a blue robe and red trousers, and the background with a waterfront scene of Canton (Guangdong), formerly in the collection of the Independence Seaport Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and sold in these rooms, 15th-16th September, 2015, lot 221; and a third that, during the time of publication, was in the possession of Samuel L. Lowe, Jr. Antiques, Boston, Massachusetts. 

Compare a closely related example, also depicting the lady wearing an apricot-yellow robe and blue trousers as in the present lot, gifted by Anthony J. Hardy to the Hong Kong Maritime Museum (accession no. HKMM2018.0001.0001), illustrated in Libby Lai-Pik Chan and Nina Lai-Na Wan ed., The Dragon and The Eagle: American Traders in China, A Century of Trade from 1784 to 1900, vol. I, Hong Kong, 2018, no. 5.30. The authors suggest that the visual language used within this painting derived from both Chinese and European influences. The child in the foreground signals fertility in the Chinese tradition, and the authors likened the depiction of a young lady lying in her inner chamber in an erotic position to European paintings of an odalisque. The painting also has details drawn from Chinese iconography which allude to intimacy, including the slippers of the lady and her attendant, and the lady's thinly clad breast. Interestingly, the suggestive footwear and bosom are skillfully obscured by a floral bouquet, a teapot, and a fan, respectively. It is unclear whether these judiciously placed elements are original to the composition, but their mere presence suggests that other examples of the same subject, such as the present lot, would have almost certainly been understood as representations of intimacy, and erotic in nature in the eyes of the contemporaneous viewer.

While Chinese oil paintings are closely associated with China Trade and by extension a Western audience, the poetic inscription at the side of the rectangular bolster may suggest otherwise. Taken from the poem Qing ping diao [The Quiet, Peaceful Melody] by Tang dynasty poet Li Bai, the prose describes the beauty of Yang Guifei, imperial consort and one of the four great beauties in Chinese history. This seemingly suggests the refinement of the sitter is comparable to that of the woman who epitomized female elegance in Chinese history. This literary reference, inscribed with care and meant to be implicitly understood by the viewer, suggests that the intended audience is perhaps Chinese after all.

The popularity of the subject can be seen in other related paintings of smaller size, including one illustrated in Patrick Conner, Paintings of the China Trade: The Sze Yuan Tang Collection of Historic Paintings, Hong Kong, 2013, pl. 150, and a pair sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th September, 1992, lot 1910.