Enjoying Fruits

A soft pastel glow from the cloudy sky permeates the scenery, giving off a relaxing atmosphere. Beautiful buildings with lattice work and an enormous lychee tree guide our eyes towards the subjects of the painting: a man who is sitting on a rock while holding a big lotus leaf, a woman who pours a liquid on the lotus leaf while standing behind the table covered with lychee and other food, and another woman who is sitting on a barrel-shaped porcelain stool (綉頓) while holding a cup. They are surrounded by other women, children and servants who are occupied by their own activities. From the buildings to the clothing of the subjects, everything is painted with scrupulous attention to detail.

When examining the object, we can see that it is made from glass and is framed in a wooden frame with another glass panel on top of it. (Fig. 1) Although it looks small in the picture, it is in fact 61,5 cm long and 90,5 cm wide! The painting depicts an outdoor scene with people sitting in a garden enjoying fruits. There are some signs of delaminationThe fading or peeling of paint layers. mainly on the bottom half of the painting. (Fig. 2) At the bottom left corner, a crack is visible. (Fig. 3) This suggests that the painting is fragile. The paint that was used might have been susceptible to moisture, or something might have scratched up that area. Across the painting we can see that the painter has used common Chinese art motifs and symbolism such as the use of the color red (color of joy), the lotus (summer, a wise man), the bat (happiness, longevity), and Manchurian cranes (longevity).Charles Williams, Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs: A Comprehensive Handbook on Symbolism in Chinese Art through the Ages, rev.ed. (Singapore: Tuttle Publishing, 2006), 6, 119, 255. The buildings and garden suggest that the people who are living here are well-off. Take a look at the curly grass decoration on the eaves of the roofs. (Fig. 4) This type of grass symbolizes the wealthy. Ting Lu and Wenying Dong, “The Influence of Curly Grass Pattern in Chinese Traditional Architecture on Furniture Design,” _ Advances in Engineering Research (AER) _ 143, (June 2017): 329, https://doi.org/10.2991/iceep-17.2017.58. According to Van Dongen ‘only the very richest officials and merchants’ could afford an estate like this. Van Dongen and Sikkens Paint Museum, Sensitive Plates, 36 It is not just the estate that radiates wealth and abundance: judging by the way the clothing falls on their bodies, the subjects themselves are obviously well-off. The fabric is light and has a fluid drape, which suggests that it must have been a light-weight fabric such as silk. We can see that five women with identical hairstyles have bound feet.A practice among Han Chinese that lasted around a 1000 years, where the feet are broken and then tightly bound to keep the feet small. At first this practice was popular among the wealthy, but it slowly gained in popularity in rural areas. In practice, this meant that they could afford to have bound feet since they also had enough money to have servants to assist them. The two servants (one girl and one boy) are wearing clothes that are practical and in dull colors. The female servant does not have bound feet. Even though the servants wear clean clothes and have a pale skin tone just like the rest of the household, the aforementioned signs emphasize the class difference. The foot binding also tells us that they are not Manchurian Manchurian women did not bind their feet since this was forbidden by the emperor. but are part of the Han Chinese, probably Cantonese.

Since these reverse glass paintings were mainly made in Canton, the painter would be the most familiar with what Cantonese people wore at that time.These painters had often never left Canton before and needed to use their imagination to paint unfamiliar scenes. Iside Carbone, “GLIMPSES OF CHINA THROUGH THE EXPORT WATERCOLOURS OF THE 18th-19th CENTURIES: A Selection from the British Museum’s Collection” (PhD diss., University of London, 2002), 178. Besides, the women are wearing liangjie chuanyi which is a garment style consisting of two pieces, one top and one bottom, often worn by the Han Chinese during the Qing Dynasty. What stands out the most is the male subject who is drinking from the lotus leaf. Drinking from a lotus leaf is not a made-up practice (see video). It has been mentioned and praised by multiple Chinese poets such as Duan Chengshi and Dai Shulun from the Tang dynasty, and Su Dongpo from the Song dynasty. Wu Jiuyi 邬久益, “Jiangxin du chu bi tong bei” 匠心独出碧筒杯 [An ingenious bitong cup], Jian cha feng yun 检察风云 11 (2007): 78. The fact that this practice was praised by members of the literati seems to suggest that the male subject is also from a literati background. When examining the subjects further we can see how they are all smiling faintly as if they are all having an enjoyable day and have nothing to worry about.