COMPANY SCHOOL PAINTING
UNTITLED (EUROPEAN FACTORIES AT CANTON)
Year: 19th Century
Image Size: 34.8 x 48.5 cm (13.7 x 19 inches)
Frame Size: 39.6 x 53.8 cm (15.5 x 21 inches)
This reverse-glass painting offers an idealized view of the European Factories, the foreign trade buildings at Canton (Guangzhou), one of the major hubs of Sino-Western commerce in the nineteenth century. Painted on the back of a glass panel, the image has the bright, enamel-like surface characteristic of Canton export workshops.A row of symmetrical, white-painted factory buildings stretches across the upper register, marked by dark shutters, red accents, and a line of national and corporate flags that signal the presence of multiple Western trading powers before the Opium Wars. Behind them, dense green foliage rises in a theatrical mound. At the centre, a slightly taller, more ornate structure with red linear ornament, geometric rooflines, and a small lookout platform blends Chinese decorative vocabulary with a European facade.
In the foreground, the harbour is animated by sail-powered ships and a cluster of smaller vessels, underscoring Canton’s role as a bustling international port. Streaked blues and greens define the water, contrasting with the crisp geometry of the buildings above.
Typical of reverse-glass export painting, the perspective is simplified and decorative rather than topographic, producing a symbolic, emblematic view of global exchange. Though the artist remains anonymous, the work exemplifies the hybrid artistic production of nineteenth-century port cities, European subjects rendered through Chinese techniques in the luminous medium of glass.
Literature: A similar reverse-glass depiction of the Foreign Factories at Canton is illustrated in 'Reverse-glass Paintings: Variations on the Kalighat Pat', DAG, 2024, in the essay by Shatadeep Maitra. The publication discusses the production of export glass paintings in nineteenth-century Canton and places them within the context of Sino-Western trade and hybrid artistic exchange.
Link to article: https://dagworld.com/reverse-glass-paintings-variations-on-the-kalighat-pat.html
Provenance : Collection of a Gentleman
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This is an auction of pre-owned and old items. Many items are of an age or nature which precludes their being in perfect condition and you should expect general wear and tear commensurate with age and use.
We strongly advise you to examine items before you bid.
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