Scenes of Service from a small album known as 'Chinese Drawings: Court and Society', hosted by the John Rylands University Library in Manchester.
We are told that these illustrations (scanned from colour transparencies) depict 19th century Chinese society and costumes and that these (slightly cropped) illustrations are bordered by blue silk.
This collection of delicate hand-painted scenes is part of a much larger set of Chinese cultural material owned by the Rylands Library [Chinese Collection description]. About fifty of these items are hosted on the Rylands' Luna Imaging site. Some of these sketches are just exquisite.
These are so amazing! The shading is so very realistic, and the images seem to be floating in air. I'm amazed that these are transparencies- they look like they are on porcelain.
ReplyDeleteThere is much emphasis on servant/master since all servants look like midgets or children in proportion to the royal figure. I suspect this was by design.
ReplyDeleteI like how the artist preferred not to draw the back legs of tables and chairs!
ReplyDeleteThese are painted on pith papers (sometimes referred to as rice papers). . . they were cut directly from the stems of Tetrapanax papyriferus (通草). Made in the southern port city of Canton, they were popular exports in the 18th and 19th centuries.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info. William.
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