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Lot Essay
The delicate art of reverse-glass painting which was practiced in China for the export market was much admired in the West in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for its unique format and vivid colors. Canton, a great commercial port of the period, was also the center for reverse and mirror-glass painting. The subjects for Chinese reverse paintings ranged from single figures to landscapes to complicated historical and literary scenes as well as native Chinese subjects. The painters themselves are not usually known, and signed examples only began to appear in the nineteenth century.
The process of reverse mirror-glass painting consisted of the artists first tracing the design on the reverse of the mirror plate and removing the mirrored surface to the backing in the areas to be painted. Imported mirror plates were typically used because although Chinese glass production was established in the Forbidden City by Imperial edict in 1696 and foreign craftsmen employed there, the Chinese product was not as thick or desirable as its European counterpart (see G. Child, World Mirrors, London, 1990, p. 362). The method of reverse-glass painting on imported plates was said to have been brought to China by the Jesuit missionary Father Castiglione (1688-1766) who spent most of his life in Peking. Dutch, French and English engravings were imported into China, sometimes within their original frames, and the Chinese artists meticulously copied them in reverse even imitating the black border of the prints as well as their frames.
The pair of reverse-glass paintings offered here are particularly remarkable for their gilt-gesso frames with painted reserves, which are highly unusual. Frames for reverse-glass paintings of the period were more typically executed in lacquered wood, hardwood or more familiar European-made giltwood frames.
The process of reverse mirror-glass painting consisted of the artists first tracing the design on the reverse of the mirror plate and removing the mirrored surface to the backing in the areas to be painted. Imported mirror plates were typically used because although Chinese glass production was established in the Forbidden City by Imperial edict in 1696 and foreign craftsmen employed there, the Chinese product was not as thick or desirable as its European counterpart (see G. Child, World Mirrors, London, 1990, p. 362). The method of reverse-glass painting on imported plates was said to have been brought to China by the Jesuit missionary Father Castiglione (1688-1766) who spent most of his life in Peking. Dutch, French and English engravings were imported into China, sometimes within their original frames, and the Chinese artists meticulously copied them in reverse even imitating the black border of the prints as well as their frames.
The pair of reverse-glass paintings offered here are particularly remarkable for their gilt-gesso frames with painted reserves, which are highly unusual. Frames for reverse-glass paintings of the period were more typically executed in lacquered wood, hardwood or more familiar European-made giltwood frames.