History of Oil Painting in China

The practice of oil painting in China is not an indigenous one, having been introduced by Europeans in the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).  The traditional and classical medium has always been ink or watercolor on paper or silk and has continued in an unbroken tradition for over two thousand years.  References to painting can be found in early Chinese texts and there is a rare surviving example from an excavated Western Han (206 B.C. - 9 A.D.) tomb known as the Mawangdui banner in the Hunan Provincial Museum in China.  This is a painted banner probably depicting the deceased lady amongst mythical beasts.  Another rare surviving example from several centuries later, and the earliest known scroll from a non-archaeological context, is the painting "Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies" attributed to Gu Kaizhi (circa 344 - 406 A.D.) in the collection of the British Museum.

In comparison, the use of oil as a medium is relatively new.  Introduced to the Qing Imperial court, oil painting was perceived as a Western novelty by the Qing emperors like Kangxi, his son Yongzheng, and his grandson Qianlong.  Talented Western Jesuit priests familiar with European painting techniqes, such as Sickleparth, Attiret, Castiglione and Panzi, served in the palace and drew portraits for the emperors.  However, it was not on fertile ground that this was introduced, and oil painting remained a curiosity and novelty.  This is not to say that these Jesuit artists were not appreciated.  In fact, they were expected to work with traditional Chinese painting materials, and as a result, their work was a synthesized Sino-European style.

If oil paintings did not catch on in the Imperial Court, it certainly was the same situation in the rest of the country.  When the market for oil paintings was established, it was not so much for the domestic Chinese market but for European traders and travelers to China.  This was a market peculiar to Europeans who had a penchant for acquiring pictures of the places they had visited, not unlike the habit of tourists picking up picture postcards, but on a grander and more expensive scale.  There was already a precedent for this in Italy and Greece, where tourists on the Grand Tour would purchase pictures of ancient ruins and famous sites.  By extension, there would be a ready market for Chinese pictures of local landscapes, imaginary and real.

Another important catalyst for the development of this market was the fashion in Europe for things Chinese.  Chinoiserie, was this was called, was a vogue for Chinese or Chinese-inspired decorative arts such as ceramics, silks, pictures and lacquer ware produced for fashionable European homes.  This whole new genre of painting in China grew out of the demand that came from Europe for Chinese pictures.  The center of this trade was in the city of Guangzhou (Canton), which was the site of foreign trade with Western nations.  Within this city, there were large numbers of Chinese merchants catering to the market for luxury good so fashionable in Europe and the Americas.  European and American factories or "hongs", as they were known, were often the subject matter of these oil paintings, as were trading ports later on.

To meet this demand, three different types of painting techniques were employed - watercolor, reverse glass painting and oil painting.  Though the medium was different, the subject matter to some extent remained the same.  In oil paintings, two subject matters predominate: landscapes, either real or imaginary, and portraits.  What distinguishes oil paintings from their more traditional Chinese counterparts, apart from the medium, is the use of Western technique in executing the work, especially the concept of perspective.  These paintings are collectively referred to as "China Trade paintings" and date from the middle of the eighteenth century to the second half of the nineteenth century when the introduction of the camera brought about their demise.

Many of the paintings from the eighteenth century are landscapes.  Apart from the real life views of the factories at Guangzhou and port scenes, the landscapes were mainly imaginary pastoral scenes with the inclusion of military and civilian subjects and imaginary scenes of courtly palaces and Imperial gardens.  The quality of these paintings varied a great deal.  Some of the earlier works betray a lack of understanding of Western technique, especially perspective, which resulted in a flat, almost naive and primitive quality to the work.  There is even the use of traditional Chinese paint strokes evident in some of the paintings, especially in the way rocks and mountains are painted.  However, these problems were surmounted and the best of these paintings can favorably compare with Western works of the same genre.

The vast majority of these artists were anonymous.   There are, however, a number of artists whose work was signed or at least attributable.  Amongst these are Spoilum, Lamqua (who was the most established and well-known artist catering to the export trade), Youqua, Sunqua and Tinqua (whose fame rested in his watercolors).  Lamqua was a pupil of George Chinnery, the best-known English artist working in China at this time.  Chinnery's influence in the China Trade painting world was widespread and his style was often imitated.  Lamqua, to his credit, soon became a rival to Chinnery for commissioned portraits and was even referred to as the "Sir Thomas Lawrence of China" by foreign visitors.  His work was of such fine quality that a painting of his was exhibited at London's Royal Academy in 1835.  These are but some of the names that we have historical records for, in no doubt due to the success of their studios and talents.  Unfortunately, most were perceived as craftsmen catering for a foreign market and as such, not important enough to sign their works.

As the nineteenth century progressed and China was compelled to open up more treaty ports, the number of studios opening up in new ports like Hong Kong grew.  After the mid-nineteenth century, there is a decline in the market for China Trade pictures.  This is due to a number of factors, chief amonst them being the introduction of the camera to Asia in the 1840s.  This was the daguerreotype, first invented in the late 1830s in France.  This photographic method was one of the main reasons portraiture in the West also declined.  Another reason for the decline was that Chinoiserie was out of fashion, whereas in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries it was the rage, as, by this time, China was perceived as a weak and backward nation.

One can say the decline in oil painting can also be mirrored in the decline of the Imperial state.  Very little oil painting has been done since the end of the Qing Dynasty and into the mid-twentieth century in China.  There are isolated examples of oil paintings done by artists, but these are primarily an exercise in oil painting rather than the norm, which was ink and watercolor.  The great Chinese artists of the twentieth century, for example, Qi Baishi and Zhang Daqian, all worked in the traditional medium.  It is only in the last quarter of the twentieth century that one sees a renewal of interest in oil painting.  As in the past, the style is a synthesis of traditional Western and Chinese Styles but with Chinese subject matter.  These days, with China becoming increasingly modern and international, it is one way of holding onto a concept of an idealized, luxuriant and romanticized beauty of the past.