Thinking in reverse

“This type of painting is all the more beautiful because, when seen from a short distance, it seems as if the figures, animals, landscape or any other design is [sic]not painted on the mirror but reflected; one’s face can be seen in the gaps left by the painting, which makes for very attractive variety” Brother Attiret, Jesuit painter at court of emperor Qianlong Letter to Marquis de Broissia, 1741. Translated by Thierry Audric in Chinese Reverse Glass Painting 1720-1820 (Bristol: Peter Lang International Academic Publishers, 2020), 167.

There are 39 reverse glass paintings in Dutch museums collections that we know of. Rosalien van der Poel, “EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CHINESE REVERSE GLASS PAINTINGS IN A DUTCH COLLECTION: ART AND COMMODITY,” in China and the West: Reconsidering Chinese Reverse Glass Painting, eds. Elisa Ambrosio, Francine Giese, Alina Martimyanova and Hans Bjarne Thomsen (Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2023), 228.But only a few are on display. This particular reverse glass painting was dated between 1785-1790 by the curators of the National Museum of Ethnology. The painting once belonged to the Royal Cabinet of Rarities (Koninklijk Kabinet van Zeldzaamheden) in The Hague. It has been part of the Chinese collection in the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden since 1883.Paul van Dongen and Sikkens Paint Museum, Sensitive Plates: Nineteen Chinese Paintings on Glass (Sassenheim: Sikkens Paint Museum, 1996), 3.

Reverse glass paintings are paintings made on the back of a glass plate in reverse order. (Fig. 1-4) They were primarily produced in Canton Now known as Guangzhou., which was the most important port city for foreign merchants during the Qing dynasty. Van Dongen and Sikkens Paint Museum, Sensitive Plates, 12. European merchants increasingly sought to expand their trade into the northern ports of Qing China due to the high demand for Chinese products such as tea and porcelain in the European market. Thomas Kaufmann, “Scratching the Surface: The Impact of the Dutch on Artistic and Material Culture in Taiwan and China,” in Mediating Netherlandish Art and Material Culture in Asia, eds. Michael North and Thomas Kaufmann (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2015), 208. Because of this, the Qing emperors felt the need to limit trade with these merchants. In 1757 the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735-1795) implemented the Canton System (一口通商). Now European merchants were only allowed to trade in the port of Canton.

Unlike other export items such as porcelain and silk, reverse glass paintings were not considered real ‘art’ worthy studying. Petra ten-Doesschate Chu and Jennifer Dawn Milam, Beyond Chinoiserie: Artistic Exchange Between China and the West During the Late Qing Dynasty (1796-1911) (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2019), 2. Reverse glass paintings have so much to offer though. Their social life can tell us more about the history of the object, the artistic exchange, change of identity of the object, and the likes and dislikes of people in that era. An example of an identity change of reverse glass paintings is that they were once appreciated by both Chinese and Western art enthusiasts in the 18th century. However, during the 19th century this attitude changed entirely due to political conflicts. This shows us how the zeitgeist can affect the identity of objects. Limiting ourselves to what we consider worthy of studying will also limit our own world views and maintain a certain, in this case Eurocentric, knowledge system. Luckily, there has been an increase of interest in reverse glass paintings within the art history world. While there is extensive research on the history of these paintings, the trade relationships, and the process of creating a glass painting, much less is written about the creators behind the reverse glass paintings. Questions arise such as: did the painters also have a say in what they wanted to paint? Did they change things up on purpose to shape a different view of China or was this only done to appeal more to the marketplace? And how does this influence us?

We often tend to overlook who is behind the object and how their work influences us. By examining the painting ‘Enjoying Eating Fruit’, we might get the answer to the following question: how did the painters of Enjoying Eating Fruit shape the views on China in Europe?

First let us take a closer look at the painting!