18TH CENTURY

Details

A fine Chinese reverse painting on glass
18th Century
Painted with two elegant young ladies in a boat near a riverbank, one standing and arranging her hair, the other seated and holding a fishing rod, two ducks swimming nearby, some houses and a tower in the background
34.6cm. high x 44cm. wide, with gilt and black-lacquered chinoiserie wood frame

Special notice

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Lot Essay

Reverse painting on glass was probably introduced to China by Jesuit missionaries around the middle of the 18th Century. The glass was imported from Europe and painted by the Chinese. The earliest paintings depicted mostly finely painted Chinese landscape scenes and later also portrait figures placed in these mirrored landscapes. Towards the early nineteenth century the copying of European engravings on glass in the reverse technique came into fashion. For an elaborate discussion on this subjectmatter, see C.L. Crossman, The China Trade, The Antique Collectors' Club, 1991.

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