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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION SCHOOL OF GUISEPPE CASTIGLIONE QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD, C. 1760 PORTRAIT OF A MAIDEN IN EUROPEAN DRESS

Oil on paper

PROVENANCE

Formerly from a Westchester, New York, Collection.
Ex. George Juergens Antiques, New York, acquired in 1972.
CATALOGUE NOTE

The present painting shows a Chinese maiden standing in three-quarter pose with head facing forward, one hand holding a signed folded fan, possibly reading ai lai, 'Love Beckons', the other hand raised as if surprised, dressed in an elaborate dress of white cotton with very fine lace ruffles at the neck, wrists and apron, over a dark green skirt, all under a dark blue velvet or silk coat with gold trims, tied in several places with bows and ribbons. The ornaments in her hair, earrings and brooches of precious stones with tassels or pearls are quite typical of mid-Qing Dynasty court jewelry but worn here, along with sprigs of flowers, in the European manner. The setting is also that of a European room with the brown velvet curtain tied back with gold cords and tassels and hanging in swags revealing a lush blue silk backing. The chair, with Chinese spandels, is upholstered in velvet with cord fringes. There is an attempt to suggest middle and far distance with the pillar in the adjoining room and the window or mirror at the upper left corner showing a tree on top of a hill.

The body of the maiden is slightly smaller in relation to her head. It is likely that in the manner of portraits painted in this period, that different artists worked on the portrait, with the master painter working on the most difficult aspect, the face. Missionary artists often collaborated with Chinese court painters in many large-scale projects called hebi in the terminology of the Painting Academy.¹ Guiseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), was just one of a handful of Jesuit artists working in the Qing Court. Others included Frenchman Jean-Denis Attiret (1702-1738), the Bohemian Ignatius Sichelbart (1708-1780) and the Italian artist Joannes (Jean) Damascenus Salusti (died 1781).

The use of oil on Chinese paintings was a foreign influence. China had no indigenous tradition of oil painting. While the European artists experimented with different artist materials, the Chinese arts continued the tradition ink and water that they had employed for centuries. Although oil painting was first introduced to the Imperial court by visiting Jesuits in the 17th and 18th centuries, it did not gain acceptance beyond those confines. Even when the use of oil paint was developed in Canton, it was only used in export paintings for Western clients.²

Portrait paintings depicting Chinese maidens in European dress are extremely rare and closely recall the style of portraits of the famed Rong Fei (1734-1788), one of the imperial consorts to the Qianlong emperor (r. 1735-1796).

The account of Rong Fei who, through legend, later came to be known as Xiang Fei, the 'Fragrant Concubine,' forms one of the most colorful tales in Qing imperial history.³ Rong Fei was a Muslim of Uighur descent who belonged to a branch of the Khoja lineage that aided the Manchu conquest of the far West, or present-day Xinjiang. In 1760, at the age of twenty-seven, she entered the imperial harem as a sixth-ranked guiren, or honored person, and lived in the Imperial Palace until her death in 1788, by which time she was raised to the fourth rank of fei, or consort.⁴

Rong Fei is the only woman of the Qing court who is most associated with depictions of Chinese imperial women in European dress. An oil portrait of a young woman in Western armour in the National Palace Museum collection, illustrated in Cécile and Michel Beurdeley, Castiglione, Peintre Jésuite a Cour de Chine, Fribourg, 1971, cat. 84, was first identified in 1914 as Rong Fei and is often attributed to the famous Jesuit missionary and court painter, Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), who is known to have painted several portraits of emperors, empresses and imperial consorts using a combination of Western and Chinese painting techniques. The skilful treatment of the metal armour echoes the same level of realism found in the delicate trim of the dress and in the folds of the curtains seen here in this painting. At the same time, there are minimal amounts of shading in both portraits, which is in keeping with traditional Chinese portraiture techniques. Compare another portrait, also illustrated ibid., cat. 85, portraying a Chinese maiden dressed as a European shepherdess, which certain authors also claim represents Rong Fei and attribute to Castiglione. The present painting embodies a fine example of the synthesis of European painting methods of realism and oil paint with a Chinese subject matter and the medium of paper. It closely follows the style of Castiglione and has remained true to the basic principles of Chinese portraiture.

Sources:

[1] See William Shang, "Rediscovering Views of Northern China: Late 18th to 19th Century Winter Scenes", Arts of Asia, March-April 2005, p.98.

[2] In Alan Bradford's " Conserving 'China Trade' Paintings", Arts of Asia, March-April 2005, pp.82-89, he discusses certain common conservation problems in China Trade paintings.

[3] See James Millward, "A Uyghur Muslim in Qianlong's Court: The Meanings of the Fragrant Concubine," Journal of Asian Studies 53, no. 2 (1994): 427-58, for a comprehensive account of Rong Fei / Xiang Fei.

[4] According to Evelyn Rawski: "The attention paid to Rong Fei stems from legends concerning the Fragrant Concubine, 'Xiang Fei,' that circulated in the early decades of the twentieth century through novels, operas and plays. [According to most myths] The daughter of Khoja Jihan, Xiang Fei, was said to have been brought to the capital after the Qing conquest and to have entered the harem, but to have steadfastly resisted the Qianlong emperor's advances. When she refused to submit, the empress dowager supposedly had Xiang Fei killed." (Evelyn Rawski, "Rong Fei and the Fragrant Concubine," in Chuimei Ho and Bennet Bronson, Splendors of China's Forbidden City: The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong, London, 2004, p. 184.