Chinese Painters
SOLD October 2009 |
CDV-format albumen print of three Chinese women posed around an oil painter's easel, one holding a brush and steadying her hand as if painting the second, while a third looks on. The easel holds a portrait similar in style to China Trade paintings. Anonymous Chinese photographer ca. 1870. Card with unmarked back.
The technique of oil painting was first introduced to China by western missionaries. In the 19th-century the production of oil paintings specifically for export to the West became popular as part of the China Trade. Export paintings sometimes followed western models but could also, as in this example, depict the Chinese themselves.
The carte-de-visite photographic format was, similarly, a popular method for western travelers to bring home images of the Orient and its people.
