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- watercolour or tempera applied to the pith surface immediately causes it to swell, as a reaction to the moisture, giving an impression of three- dimensionality or depth perception. The jewel-like brilliance of the vibrant colours creates a look of embroidery or even the appearance of a mosaic. Because the paint does not spread, a brush as thin as a single hair can be used to paint on the surface. Unfortunately the nature of the pith paper makes the paintings very fragile as the pith becomes very brittle and cracks easily, and is almost always in need of conservation.
Selected Bibliography
Clunas, Craig. Chinese Export Watercolours. 1984.
Crossman, Carl L. The China Trade: Export Paintings, Furniture; Silver and Other Objects, Princeton. 1972.
Williams, Ifan. "Beauty in Pursuit of Pleasure." Apollo. November, 2006.
___________. "Views from the West,
Chinese Pith Paper Paintings." Arts of Asia, Volume 31, No. 5, 2001.
Little is known of the pith painters, as only a very few ever signed their works. Most paintings were probably produced by teams in studios, perhaps working on a type of assembly line, each doing a different aspect or element of the painting�face, clothing or background�over and over again. Sometimes the faces in a series look overly standardized and simplified. An experienced painter might create the original image, and his stable of assistants would churn out countless copies by stencilling or tracing the general outline and filling in the colours. The themes for the paintings, which played a very important role in revealing Chinese culture to the West, included landscapes, harbour scenes (especially the waterfront factories or the "hongs" in Canton and the ships transporting the products), customs, gambling, festivals, weddings, funerals, torture/ punishment scenes, occupations, market scenes, genre scenes of traditional games and pastimes, as well as production sequences like the culturing of tea, the carving of jade, the production of ceramics and the making of silk. Other popular themes were portraits of the locals, from beggars on the street to wealthy Chinese and Manchu aristocrats with their stunning costumes. The flora and fauna were often depicted with great detail, especially the local plants, flowers, birds, insects and fish.
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