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- Ch inese Pith Paintings
Chinese Pith Painting - Trading ships in Canton: steamships, clippers and junks � Peintures chinoises sur papier de moelle - Navires commergants � Canton : paquebots, clippers et jonques � artist unknown, 19th century � ink and colours on pith paper � Gift of Colin C. Graham,
AGGV 2004.004.005
Pith paintings appear to have made their first appearance in China sometime in the early 19th century and were made almost exclusively for the export market, being sold as inexpensive souvenirs�like picture postcards of the day�to foreign merchants, sailors and missionaries, and eventually shipped in bulk to satisfy the Western appetite for stereotypical images of Chinese culture. Their heyday appears to have been in the 1830s and 1840s. They were often made in sets and presented in small paper-windowed albums or glass-fronted boxes and could vary greatly in quality. Pith paintings ranged in size from as small as about 10 x 8 cm to a maximum of about 30 x 20 cm. Of the eight known studios of pith painting, six were located in Canton, one in Beijing and one site remains unidentified. The only way of knowing the studio of origin of a painting is when the paintings come in an album, which has a studio plate stamp. As a rule, pith painters did not sign their works, except for the artist Sunqua. Other known pith artists listed in Carl Crossman's book The China Trade include Tingqua from Canton, Chou Pai Chuen in Beijing and Chow Kwa in Shanghai, the latter two both working in the late 19th century. Tingqua and Chow Kwa are known to have set up studios in Hong Kong after the waterfront factories, or hongs of Canton, were burned down in the First Opium War (1839-1841) and in 1856.
Pith paintings were small by necessity. Pith was a cheap, unprocessed, spongy paper-like material cored from the stem of a shrub called tetrapanax papyrifera, native to swampy areas in southern China and Taiwan. Pith is soaked before cutting, then short, thin sheet lengths are cut with a razor-sharp blade by a very skilful craftsman while turning the cylindrical stem. After drying in the sun for several days, they were trimmed and used without any further processing. The resulting pith surface is shiny, soft or velvety and translucent, and because the applied paint did not spread, it allows for incredibly detailed images. The bright
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