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China Back in the Frame An Early Set of Three Chinese Export Harbour Views in the Rijksmuseum

• rosalien van der poel •

‘A painting is a silent story, and the story a speaking painting’ *

or centuries the Chinese harbours Detail of fig. 6 and View of Canton Quay, come from F and anchorages in the Pearl River the collection of the Rijks­museum Delta – important focal points where Volkenkunde in Leiden, and have been knowledge and ideas were shared – transfer­red to Amsterdam on loan. were crucial to transcontinental trade. Originally part of the collection of They were the only places in China open Jean Theodore Royer (1737-1807), an to Europeans, so it is not surprising that amateur Sino­logist from The Hague, views of these harbours were popular they have been in museums since 1814 souvenirs for western merchants – thanks to a bequest from his widow.3 particularly those featuring the quays Thorough conservation carried out in with the flags and buildings of the Fig. 1 2010-12 has restored the paintings to 4 western trading posts, or factories. Hong Bowl with their former glory. Between 1752 and 1842 all foreign a View of the With their exquisite detail, the trade to and from China, with the English and Dutch harbour scenes provide a wealth of exception of that from Russia and Factories in Canton, information about these locations, Japan, was concentrated in Canton, China, c. 1769. which were so meaningful to western- Salem (ma), Peabody present-day Guangzhou.1 From 1760 ers. It is well worth while scrutinizing Essex Museum, the rules that forbade access to China inv. no. 81404. them closely to discover the role they outside Canton were observed more Photo: played in the lives of the European strictly, so the western factories in Dennis Helmar. travellers to China. Canton increasingly became the symbol of the ‘China trade’ and regularly appeared as motifs on export works of art in various materials, among them large porcelain ‘Hong’ bowls from the early 1760s (fig. 1).2

In future, three early and well-docu- mented harbour scenes will be part of the Rijksmuseum’s permanent display. The three export oil paintings, View of Macao, View of Whampoa Roads

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279 the rijksmuseum bulletin pages 278-79 View of Macao domes and some without; some with Fig. 2 (fig. 2) austere façades, some lavishly orna- anonymous, The port of Macao, a Portuguese mented (fig. 4). Familiar landmarks View of Macao, possession from 1557 to 1999, is can be seen in the centre: the façade of China, 1773. situated around 115 kilometres from St Paul’s Church at the foot of Monte Oil on paper, laid down on canvas, Canton (fig. 3). When western Forte (right of centre), the baroque 52 x 76 cm. merchants arrived in the Pearl River church of St Domingo and the church Amsterdam, Delta, Macao was an obligatory first of St Lorenzo – without the two square Rijksmuseum, stop on the way to their trading posts towers, which were not added until inv. no. sk-c-1722; in Canton. They had to apply for 1846.6 In the inner harbour to the west on loan from the trading permits here, and find local of the town there are ocean-going Rijksmuseum pilots who could lead them to Bocca vessels lying at anchor with raised Volkenkunde, restoration with Tigris, the narrow passage in the masts, probably there to arrange their the support of Irma river delta, where there was a second transit papers. To the east of the town Theodora Fonds/ compulsory stop at the customs post. lies the Praia Grande, the elongated Rijksmuseum Fonds. From February to July, outside the crescent-shaped sandy bay bordered trading season, Macao was also a by western-style houses and ware­ temporary home to many western houses. On the hill to the north of the merchants who did not make the long bay on the right stands Fort Guia. It is voyage home after the ‘China trade’ marked unmistakably by its fluttering had ended. Many of their wives and eighteenth-century Portuguese flag children often spent the whole year in adorned with the escudo, the traditional Macao as they were forbidden to show Portuguese coat of arms. At the foot themselves in Canton.5 of this hill is the monastery fort of San The town in the centre of this Francisco. In the distance we can see picture, viewed from Penha Hill, is an isthmus that leads to the Chinese Fig. 3 home to a number of churches and mainland. In the foreground of the Map of the Pearl monasteries, large and small, with painting there are a number of people River Delta. western architecture – some with including a westerner with a flock of sheep. Westerners often took these animals, along with cows, pigs, fruit, vegetables and cereals, as food for the long ocean voyage home.

View of Whampoa Roads (fig. 5) The island of Whampoa is situated around a hundred kilometres to the north of Macao and fifteen kilometres south of Canton. The large western ocean-going vessels bound for Canton lay at anchor in a specially built anchorage off this island for several months every year. The flags on the sterns are good distinguishing marks to determine where the ships came from. Eight English, two Danish, one Swedish, two French (white flag) and four Dutch vessels lie at anchor with hoisted topmasts and standards flying. Other standards indicate that there are three more ships behind the hill with

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the graves. From left to right a Dutch, which were then increasingly replaced Fig. 4 a Swedish and a Danish flag show just by permanent brick buildings.8 Further Detail of View of above the hill. All the vessels have their away we can also see the French island Macao with the town mainmasts lowered. These were struck and Danes Island, which were used as centre (fig. 2). so that the ships that lay there at anchor cemeteries for westerners.9 Hills and for months could not sail away without rocky islands are visible in the distance notice. All commodities were shipped on the horizon. The Pearl River flows from Whampoa to Canton and vice from the left of the Pazhou Pagoda versa in river junks or in chop boats. upstream to the north towards the These boats were named after the chop, mainland of Canton. an official stamp which indicated that the cargo had been cleared through View of the Quay of Canton Customs.7 There is a small Chinese (fig. 6) rowing boat, a sampan, on each side of In the trading season the western pages 284-85 the merchantmen. The crew members trading companies rented two- or Fig. 5 who remained with the vessels could three-storey mercantile houses and anonymous, use them to reach their accommodation places of residence as their trading View of Whampoa on the bank. posts, which were also known as Roads, China, 1773. Oil on paper, laid In mid-river lies the island of factories or hongs.10 They were built down on canvas, Whampoa with a strip of sand, grass on a special quay beside the Pearl River 52 x 76 cm. and trees. On this island the proud, outside the high walls that surrounded Amsterdam, nine-storey Pazhou Pagoda towers Canton. The Chinese authorities kept Rijksmuseum, above the trees, and a smaller pagoda a close watch on the westerners to inv. no. sk-c-1723; that no longer exists can also be seen. ensure that they only stayed in and on loan from the In the centre on the strip of sand we can around their hongs and did not go into Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, see the simple quarters with flags flying the town. The foreign merchants were restoration with on the flagpoles in front of the build­ allowed to do business by way of the the support of Irma ings. Until 1840 there were temporary Co-hong, a kind of Chinese state guild Theodora Fonds/ storehouses and warehouses there, in tea, silk or porcelain.11 The Co-hong Rijksmuseum Fonds.

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285 the rijksmuseum bulletin pages 284-85 had the monopoly to trade in these The western trading posts are easily Fig. 6 products and in its turn was respon­ identified by the flags outlined against anonymous, sible for the collection of taxes, the the empty sky. To their left flies a pale View of Canton Quay, China, 1773. renting of the factories and the flag with Chinese characters, which Oil on paper, laid down monitoring of the westerners. The marks the location of a Customs post. on canvas, 52 x 76 cm. trading season usually lasted less To the east (right) of the non-western Amsterdam, than six months, from August to district – clearly divided by a high wall Rijksmuseum, January. Western ships wanted to – from left to right we can see the inv. no. sk-c-1724; be on the return voyage to Europe Danish flag, the white flag of the on loan from the well before the monsoon winds in French royal house and the Swedish, Rijksmuseum Volken- kunde, restoration February changed direction. Those English and Dutch flags (fig. 7). To the with the support of who remained in China in the months right of the Dutch flag we can just see Irma Theodora Fonds/ when no business was done usually the Creek factory, which was named Rijksmuseum Fonds. visited their families in Macao. after the adjacent river, ‘The Creek’, This painting shows the Pearl River which ran parallel to the west wall of Fig. 7 with various boats and the quay with Canton. To the right of the Creek Detail of View of seventeen western and Chinese hongs. there is a hong on wooden piles. Canton Quay (fig. 6). On the left of the French trading post is a gate which led to New China Street, where there were countless workshops and shops, as there were in Old China Street and Hog Lane (immediately to the left of the English factory). This was where western traders privately purchased their souvenirs and merchandise. There are a number of figures on the quay. The Europeans are recognizable by their hats and their long overcoats. Most of

286 the rijksmuseum bulletin the Chinese carry goods on a yoke Sets like this are far from uncommon, across their shoulders. Lying side by chiefly dating from the early nine- side at the quay are small cargo vessels, teenth century, and are usually made up which generally sold all manner of of four paintings – the three discussed things, from timber (planks), stone here and one of Bocca Tigris. The fact slabs and coal to rice, oysters, vege­ that the set now being shown in the tables and fruit. Rijksmuseum consists of only three In the foreground on the right and paintings suggests that the view of in the centre of the composition there Bocca Tigris may have been lost, but it are colourful Chinese sea-going may also have to do with its early date. merchantmen. On both gangways of It is possible that at the time these these vessels there was a painted eye paintings were made the set was still in that stared forward. This practice was development and had not yet crystal- prompted by the superstition that this lized into the standard set of four. would allow the ship to look ahead These harbour scenes, which by Fig. 8 and avoid danger.12 These ships were the way they were framed and the low anonymous, mainly used for the transport of goods horizon, deliberately imitate the look View of the Pearl and of sundry products to the various of a European painting, stem from River and Canton, China, 1771. provinces and ports of the Chinese the panoramic scroll paintings of the Watercolour on 15 empire, and were called ‘red-headed landscape of the Pearl River (fig. 8). silk, 95 x 368 cm. 13 ships’ or ‘big-eyed cocks’. In the All four of the scenes are there, linked Amsterdam, centre is a chop boat under sail. In the together. The form of these paintings Rijksmuseum, foreground of the picture, right of – a horizontal scroll painting on silk – inv. no. ng-1052. centre, there are two rice barges lying is still Chinese, but here, too, the low There are only at anchor.14 horizon has already been adapted to Chinese ships to be seen on this European pictorial conventions. These panoramic painting. Genre with Four Scenes long scrolls, which were first made The western vessels The three paintings have identical around the 1760s, were in turn based lie at anchor off frames and are therefore clearly a group. on horizontal scroll paintings of the Whampoa.

287 the rijksmuseum bulletin same subject, entirely in Chinese style Stylistic and and technique and made for a Chinese Compositional Aspects clientele. The oil paintings of Canton It is clear that the Chinese painter and its surroundings in European style tried to make ‘European’ paintings. He thus became a genre in a short period would have had European examples to of time, inspired in part by a familiar hand to assist him. There were western Chinese tradition. engravings in the Cantonese studios that gave a general sense of a landscape Dating in European style. In the palette and A number of elements in the paintings atmospheric perspective, however, allow us to date them accurately. The the painting of Macao is so similar to flags on the ships near Whampoa, on views of the Bay of Naples – particu- the churches in Macao and in front larly popular with the English at that of the trading posts in Canton, the time – that it is safe to assume that the architectural features of the buildings Chinese painter did not have to make depicted and the number of vessels are do with prints and sketches, but had all important pointers.16 The view of seen an Italian painting of this kind.20 Canton can consequently be dated to It is quite possible that such paintings 1773 with great certainty. Details of adorned the wall in the English cap­- the architecture make it possible to tain’s cabin, or the residence of the pin this down. We know, for example, English company’s senior officials. that the wall to the left of the Danish One important European aspect factory was built in 1772-73.17 This that the Chinese painters of these means that the painting is later than and comparable views had to master this, but it must have been made before was perspective. They seem to have 1774, as the Dutch trading post still has adapted this in a rather singular way. a short open balcony on the first floor. In the view of Canton, the artist used In the spring of 1774 the balcony was the worm’s eye view – the horizon is replaced with a covered porch. The low, immediately above the bottom flags date the paintings precisely. They edge of the picture. The scene is were flown when the Europeans were rendered with central perspective in their trading posts. The Dutch – the from a low standpoint. In the view of last of the Europeans – arrived on 12 Macao an attempt was made to employ August 1773, and on 16 February 1774 a bird’s-eye view. This is not entirely the Danes were the first to move from successful; for example, the horizon Canton to Macao.18 The painting, with should be high. In the centre the both the Dutch and the Danish flags, viewer does indeed look down, and as shows the situation between those two a result the subject is easily visible. The dates. dark foreground in the depictions of The view of Whampoa also corres­ Macao and Whampoa reinforces the ponds to the situation in the 1773-74 perspectival image, as do the vessels trading season. In the spring of 1773 by the quay of Canton, carefully placed four Dutch East Indiamen arrived at in the composition. The vast sky in Canton – the Holland and the Voorberg the paintings displays little depth and from Amsterdam, the Europa from minimal drawing. Zeeland, and the Jonge Hellingman It is obvious that the painter did from Rotterdam. The latter took the not adopt strict linear perspective. But place of the Juno from Batavia.19 There was this through ignorance and lack of are indeed four Dutch ships shown in skill or a difference in opinions about the painting of Whampoa. aesthetics? The Chinese painter seems to have viewed the implications of the use of linear perspective with vanish-

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ing points as a problem. The advantage to which they adequately describe the of ignoring these rules was that he had situation in the eighteenth century is to sacrifice far fewer details. This blend unclear.22 of western and Chinese traditions It was on the spot in the workshops often gives export paintings a strange, that Chinese export painters passed mysterious, disjointed, but certainly on painting conventions and the also a fascinating atmosphere. new western ways of working. There If we compare different views of was no question of institutionalized Canton’s quay, we see that compos­ training – you learned as you went itions from a particular period appear along. In the late eighteenth and early broadly identical. In many respects nineteenth century (1780-1830) the placement of the buildings and the pictures were painted primarily on boats are the same. However, closer imported European paper. This paper study reveals that the details (flags, came from paper merchants like the windows, doors, columns) differ. It London firms of J. Whatman and seems that a stencil was used for the A. Cowan & Son and from the Dutch rough outline of the buildings and paper manufacturer Van Gelder.23 the position of the boats, and then Later on, Chinese paper (mianlin zhi) Chinese painters meticulously added made from cotton or from the the details to make the scene as topical mulberry plant was also used. The as possible. This painstaking accuracy three harbour views are painted on rice was essential to the painter’s commer- paper or mitsumata, which was pasted cial success. The harbour views were on to the canvas, a combination of purchased as a memento of a wester­n­ cotton and jute. Both paper and canvas er’s stay in China, and only very true- are tensioned over the edges of the to-life paintings would sell. In that stretcher. The painters’ decision to respect these maritime paintings mount paper on canvas and work on differed from other export paintings, that, rather than directly on the canvas where the painters split the work itself, tells us that knowledge and according to a strict regime and turned understanding of European painting out the paintings on a kind of produc- were still at a very early stage. No tion line. Sharing the work like this paintings on similar supports have meant that painting itself had little to been found in the literature or in an do with creativity. The high turnover extensive inventory of Chinese export and the thought given to increasing the paintings in the Netherlands.24 speed of production were in fact the Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century most creative aspects.21 These paint- export paintings have clearly recogniz- ings, after all, had to be made during able Chinese strainers.25 They are made the trading season. All export paint- of four sections of thin wood, held ings were first and foremost commodi- together at the corners with two or ties that had to be sold at the best four thin bamboo pegs, a type known price. The requirements for harbour as a fixed-corner strainer. European scenes, however, differed from those stretchers of the same period had for ordinary export paintings. corner pieces that fitted together and wedges that made it possible to extend The Working Methods of the device and stretch the canvas. Export Painters in Canton These cheap, easily-produced fixed- We know little about Chinese export corner strainers were used for the painters’ workshops in the eighteenth majority of export paintings for more century. There are observations made than a hundred years, until well into by nineteenth-century western visitors the nineteenth century. The frames of to Canton in existence, but the extent the three harbour views have typical

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Chinese mortise and tenon joints. In on which two more (in one case three) some places the strainers are fixed to layers of ground and a top layer of oil the frames with small original nails paint can be identified. The elements (fig. 9). During conservation, the in the composition stand side by side; restorers discovered a layer of paper virtually nothing was painted on top on the wooden frame, to which a of anything else. Where the paint was black lacquer finishing coat had been put on more thickly in one or two applied, decorated with a gilded edge. places, drying has caused cracking. The three harbour views are painted The medium in the oil paint is linseed in oils. Oil paint was never used in oil. One of the samples also shows traditional Chinese painting; artists traces of paraffin wax. During the continued to use the water-based analysis of the pigments in the oil media they had worked with for paint, lead white and chalk were found generations.26 Although the Italian in the priming coats, and lead white, missionary and painter Giovanni Prussian blue and King’s yellow in Battista Gherardini (1655-1723) the top layers. Red pigments seem introduced oil paint to the imperial to have disappeared. The palette can court in 1699, it never became popular be described as restrained – earth away from the court.27 Even when it pigments mixed with never more than was widely used in Canton for export two colours. paintings, there was no market for oil The painting is so delicate that some paintings for local buyers. The thinly- details can only be seen with a magnify- applied paint on the three harbour ing glass. An underdrawing in a water­- views is mixed with very little oil and colour medium, probably applied with this gives it a gouache-like effect. On a brush, was discovered in infra-red top of the bottommost ground, there photographs. Changes relative to the is another brownish priming layer, underdrawing were made in the final

Fig. 9 The back of the strainer, with original nails affixed to the frame.

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painting (fig. 10). This indicates that Figs. 10a, b China and its inhabitants. The the artist was seeking an accurate Normal photograph collection included apparel, writing composition. This discovery supports (a) and infra-red materials for the literary elite, instru- the idea that these paintings were not photograph (b) of ments, utensils and a large group of View of Canton Quay. produced en masse and as quickly as illustrations of plants, animals and In the top right hand possible, but that the painter took corner in the infra- people of different classes and with pains to find the best composition. red photograph a a variety of occupations, performing little boat is visible various activities. Several of these The Restoration in the underdrawing, illustrations had explanations in An extremely necessary restoration behind the mast. Chinese characters and in Latin, which of the harbour views was undertaken was specially added beside the Chinese 28 between 2010 and 2012. The paintings Fig. 11 captions for him in Canton. In keeping were very dirty and torn in several Tears in View of with the ideal of Enlightenment at that places. The combination of jute/cotton Canton Quay. time, Royer tried to amass reliable, and paper had led to major problems. verifiable knowledge about China. He Over the years most of the damage even tried to learn Chinese so as to was caused by fluctuations in relative consult Chinese sources. He wanted humidity, to which paper and canvas his collection of illustrations and react differently, and this had resulted objects to provide a benchmark for in tears. Cleaning and retouching what was being written and asserted were not possible around the major about China. To a considerable extent areas of damage, so the paper had to this can be seen as a reaction to the be separated from the support in the many publications about the country, views of Whampoa and Canton. First which were almost always based on of all the paper had to be restored by the knowledge of Jesuit missionaries, a paper restorer, lined with Japanese publications in which this verifiability paper and put back on the original was lacking. support. It was only then that the On his behalf, Royer’s high-ranking painting restorer was able to clean friends in the Dutch East India and retouch these damaged areas of Company in China bought the most the paintings (fig. 11). interesting products they could find In 1774 Jean Theodore Royer was in the Cantonese workshops. These sent three harbour views of Canton harbour views were new and sensa- and the surrounding area. Royer had tional – at first glance they were the most eclectic collection of Chinese European paintings with a profusion objects in the Netherlands at that time. of details about the lives of the It was a study collection that was Europeans in Canton. Undoubtedly designed­­ to provide information about this was the reason why Royer’s

291 the rijksmuseum bulletin friends acquired them for him, but they were actually not what Royer wanted. He was interested in learning about the ‘real’ China through his objects and did not care about record- ing European trading successes. The paintings are not so much interesting illustrations of China or of the European presence there as the remarkable result of a fascinating struggle by a Chinese painter who hoped to find a ready market for his work by incorporating the European pictorial idiom and painting conven- tions into his own painting tradition. Royer’s serious interest in China made him almost unique in the eight- ­eenth century. It would not be until the middle of the twentieth century that an equally serious interest arose in the objets d’art which were the result of the meeting between China and Europe.29 Royer would have paid the paintings little heed, but his harbour views are eminent examples of the genre.

notes * ‘Eene schilderij is eene stomme geschiedenis, verzamelen. Het Koninklijk Kabinet van en de geschiedenis eene sprekende schilderij’. Zeldzaamheden en het Rijks Ethnographisch Dedication in R.P. van de Kasteele, Hand­ Museum 1816-1883, Leiden 2003 (diss. leiding tot de Bezigtiging van het Koninklijk Leiden). Kabinet van Zeldzaamheden op Mauritshuis, 4 The restoration by Pauline J. Marchand in ’s Gravenhage, The Hague 1824. and Nico Lingbeek is discussed in detail in M. Reuss, ‘“Made in China”. Techniques and 1 P.A. Van Dyke, ‘The Structure of the Canton Ethics When Approaching the Conservation Trade’, in Cai Hongsheng and L. Blussé of Three “China Trade Paintings”’, Journal (eds.), Sailing to the Pearl River. Dutch of the Institute of Conservation (forthcoming Enterprise in South China 1600-2000, 2014). Guangzhou 2004, p. 45. 5 P. Conner, The Hongs of Canton. Western 2 Kee Il Choi Jr., ‘Carl Gustav Ekeberg and Merchants in South China 1700-1900, As Seen the Invention of Chinese Export Painting’, in Chinese Export Paintings, London 2009, 153 The Magazine Antiques, no. 3, p. 429. p. 12. P. Conner et al., The China Trade 1600- Kee Il Choi Jr., ‘A Chinese Export Painting 1860, Brighton 1986, p. 41. as China Trade History’, Orientations 34 6 W.R. Sargent et al. (eds.), Views of the Pearl (2003), pp. 65-68. River Delta: Macau, Canton and Hongkong, 3 For more on Royer see J. van Campen, De exh. cat. Hong Kong (Hong Kong Museum Haagse jurist Jean Theodore Royer en zijn of Art)/Salem (Peabody Essex Museum) verzameling Chinese voorwerpen, Hilversum 1996, p. 54. 2000; for the later museum history of the 7 Ching May-bo, ‘Boats in Chinese Export objects see R.A.H.D. Effert, Volkenkundig Painting’, in Ming Wilson and Liu Zhiwei

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(eds.), Souvenir from Canton: Chinese 22 C. Toogood Downing, The Fan-Qui in Export Paintings from the Victoria and Albert China in 1836-7, vols. 1 and 2 (facsimile of the Museum, exh. cat. Shanghai (Guangzhou first print 1838), Shannon 1972, pp. 93-114. Museum of Art) 2003, p. 52. Old Nick [E.D. Forgues], La Chine ouverte. 8 M. Gregory, A View from the East: Historical Aventures d’un Fan-Kouei dans le pays de Pictures by Chinese and Western Artists 1750- Tsin, Paris 1845, pp. 56-59. M.C. LaVollée, 1930, London 2005, p. 93. Voyage en Chine, Paris 1853, pp. 358-59. 9 Conner, op. cit. (note 5), pp. 23-24. P. Conner, C. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of the ‘Port Scenes in the Anthony J. Hardy China Trade: Paintings, Furnishings, and Collection of China Trade Paintings’, Arts Exotic Curiosities, Woodbridge 1991, p. 113. of Asia 32 (2002), p. 81. Tillotson, op. cit. (note 21), p. 63. 10 ‘Hong’ or ‘haung’ derives from ‘hang’, 23 Crossman, op. cit. (note 22), pp. 177, 386-87. the Cantonese word for a business house. C. Clunas, Chinese Export Watercolours, A trading post was often made up of buildings London 1984, pp. 49, 77. with several functions, such as warehouses, 24 R. van der Poel, Rijk palet. Chinese export­ offices and accommodation. schilderkunst overzee, Leiden 2008 (doctoral 11 S. Naquin and E.S. Rawski, Chinese Society thesis Leiden). in the Eighteenth Century, New Haven 1987, 25 A.H.K. Bradford, ‘Conserving China Trade p. 102. Paintings’, Arts of Asia 35 (2005), p. 83. 12 W. Alexander and G.H. Mason, China: 26 Ibid., p. 85. beeld van het dagelijks leven in de 18de eeuw, 27 M. Jourdain and R.S. Jenyns, Chinese Export Alphen aan den Rijn 1988. [Compiled from Art in the Eighteenth Century, London/New G.H. Mason, The Costume of China, and York 1950, p. 34. W. Alexander, The Costume of China, 1804, 28 Reuss, op. cit. (note 4). Beforehand research 1805 respectively.] was carried out on paper, fabric, glue and 13 Ching, op. cit. (note 7), p. 50. Ships with red paint. This technical material analysis was prows came from Canton. The ships from carried out by the Stichting Restauratie the province of Fujian had green prows. Atelier Limburg, in collaboration with 14 Ming Wilson and Liu Zhiwei, op. cit. (note 7), the Rijksdienst Cultureel Erfgoed. See p. 197. R. Hoppenbrouwers et al., Three China 15 See the painting View of the Pearl River with Trading Paintings from the National Canton, China, 1771. Watercolour on silk, Museum of Ethnology, Maastricht 2009 95 x 368 cm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, (unpublished research documentation inv. no. ng-1052. Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg). 16 The barriers on the quay, the rise of the 29 Ming Wilson and Liu Zhiwei, op. cit. (note 7), land in front, the depiction of the skies, and p. 10. the type of ships are other indicators that are used by Patrick Conner and Paul A. Van Dyke in their publications for the dating of these paintings: Conner 2009, op. cit. (note 5) and P.A. van Dyke and M. Mok, Dating the Canton Factories 1760-1822 (forth- coming 2014). With many thanks for the perusal of the manuscript and the opportun­ ity to make use of it for this article. 17 Van Dyke and Mok, op. cit. (note 16). 18 After the French Revolution (in other words from 1790 onwards) the white flag was replaced with the French tricolour. 19 C.J.A. Jörg, Porcelain and the Dutch China Trade, The Hague 1982, pp. 195-201. J.R. Bruijn et al., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping in the 17th and 18th Centuries, The Hague 1979 (see also www.historici.nl/Onderzoek/­ Projecten/das). 20 Conner, op. cit. (note 5), p. 15. 21 G.H.R. Tillotson, Fan Kwae Pictures: The Hongkong Bank Art Collection, London 1987, p. 64.

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