Lot Essay
Western dresses were familiar to the Qianlong court, as these were recorded in four volumes mounted as handscrolls, entitled 'Professional Tributes to the Imperial Court', completed in the 26th year of Qianlong (1761) by Court artists, Ding Guanpeng, Jin Tingbiao, Yao Wenhan and Cheng Liang. One of the handscrolls was included in the exhibition, Splendours of a Flourish Age, Museu de Arte de Macau, 2000, no. 42.
The characteristic European hair-style derived from fashion plates published circa 1675 by the Bonnart Brothers which recorded contemporary modes at the Court of Louis XIV, and which may well have been available to Chinese artists. The rendition of the floating folds of the dresses is very similar in style to dresses worn by Palace ladies of the 18th century and depicted by Court artists, such as Ding Guanpeng (active 1726-1770). Cf. a painting by Ding Guanpeng in the Beijing Palace Museum, included in the exhibition La Cite Interdite, Paris, 1996, and illustrated in the Catalogue no. 128.
The characteristic European hair-style derived from fashion plates published circa 1675 by the Bonnart Brothers which recorded contemporary modes at the Court of Louis XIV, and which may well have been available to Chinese artists. The rendition of the floating folds of the dresses is very similar in style to dresses worn by Palace ladies of the 18th century and depicted by Court artists, such as Ding Guanpeng (active 1726-1770). Cf. a painting by Ding Guanpeng in the Beijing Palace Museum, included in the exhibition La Cite Interdite, Paris, 1996, and illustrated in the Catalogue no. 128.