RHS Journals

The Garden
October 2002

Canton’s take on European styles

China exported many 19th-century artworks, yet the artists were often anonymous says Brent Elliott

Magnolia species	Phaius tankervilleae

In the late 18th century, Canton and Macao became a thriving centre for the production of artworks for the European market. Craftsmen and artists learned enough about European styles to emulate them with the right degree of exoticism to attract foreign buyers: furniture, porcelain and paintings were all produced for export. Late in the 19th century, a 'Canton school' of artists arose using European-based styles for portraits and landscapes; the roots of this movement could perhaps be found in the early 19th-century export art business.
The RHS Lindley Library has a good collection of plant portraits in a more or less European style, made by Chinese artists in the 19th century. The most famous of these are the works that John Reeves, an East India Company tea inspector and later a member of the Society's Council, sent to the Society between 1817 and 1830: more than 700 drawings, many of chrysanthemums, peonies and camellias. None of the artists is identified.
But there are others as well: an album of 50 drawings of flowers, fruits and vegetables, made in Canton about 1800 and bearing the name of Wang Liu Chi (either the artist or a former owner), and another collection of 100 drawings, bound in four volumes, that the library purchased in 1912. Again, there are no artists' signatures, and the drawings have not been dated more narrowly than '19th century'. But they contain a superb range of plants, from the south China area, both native and cultivated. The drawings shown of Magnolia species and the orchid Phaius tankervilleae are from this collection.

Brent Elliott is RHS Librarian and Archivist

The RHS Lindley Library holds more than 50,000 books, 1,500 periodicals, 25,000 botanical drawings, and the UK's largest collection of horticultural trade catalogues.
The works shown here are held in the rare books room of the RHS Lindley Library and may be consulted by appointment. The library is situated at 80 Vincent Square, London, and is open to the public Monday - Friday, 9.30am - 5.30pm.
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