Images of the Canton Factories 1760–1822 [electronic resource] : Reading History in Art /
Van Dyke, Paul Arthur,author.
Mok, Maria Kar-wing,author.
Hong Kong [China] : Hong Kong University Press,
[2015]
Hundreds of Chinese export paintings of Canton trading houses and shopping streets are in museums and private collections throughout the world, and scholars of art and history have often questioned the reliability of these historical paintings. In this illustrated volume, Paul Van Dyke and Maria Mok examine these Chinese export paintings by matching the changes in the images with new historical data collected from various archives. Many factory paintings are reliable historical records in their own right and can be dated to a single year. Dating images with such precision was not possible in the past owing to insufficient information on the scenes. The new findings in this volume provide unprecedented opportunities to re-date many art works and prove that images of the Canton factories painted on canvas by Chinese artists are far more trustworthy than what scholars have believed in the past.
Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Hundreds of Chinese export paintings of Canton trading houses and shopping streets are in museums and private collections throughout the world, and scholars of art and history have often questioned the reliability of these historical paintings. In this illustrated volume, Paul Van Dyke and Maria Mok examine these Chinese export paintings by matching the changes in the images with new historical data collected from various archives. Many factory paintings are reliable historical records in their own right and can be dated to a single year. Dating images with such precision was not possible in the past owing to insufficient information on the scenes. The new findings in this volume provide unprecedented opportunities to re-date many art works and prove that images of the Canton factories painted on canvas by Chinese artists are far more trustworthy than what scholars have believed in the past.
Description based on print version record.
Preface -- Introduction -- 1. The years of the Co-hong 1760-1770 -- 2. The opening of trade and the debt crisis 1771-1781 -- 3. Problems with porcelain -- 4. Ups and downs of trade 1782-1789 -- 5. Vantage points, perspectives and artistic presentation -- 6. Rise of the private traders 1790-1799 -- 7. American entrepreneurs and the brief return of the French 1800-1814 -- 8. New British factories, return of the Danes, and the Great Fire 1815-1822 -- 9. The shopping streets in the Foreign Quarter -- Conclusion -- Appendix. Foreign movements between Canton and Macao 1760-1769.
Merchants in art.
China trade art.