Chinese Bird-And-Flower Wallpaper from Painting to Decorative Arts
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CHINESE BIRD-AND-FLOWER WALLPAPER FROM PAINTING TO DECORATIVE ARTS A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Yixin Xu December 2020 © 2020 Yixin Xu ABSTRACT This thesis investigates what remains of the Chinese bird-and-flower wallpaper export in Britain today in an attempt to answer the long-existing question of how these wallpapers, as one of the most successful and unique global products in the 18th century, have changed from a type of oriental painting to a Western interior decoration style. Apart from the summary and literature review, this thesis is divided into six parts. The first part introduces the “Chinoiserie” trend popular in Britain in the 18th century and how bird-and-flower wallpapers entered the UK market, while the second part traces the oriental source of inspiration of the Chinese bird-and-flower wallpaper export, known as Chinese bird-and-flower painting. The third part investigates how the emerging assembly line painting workshop in Canton, China, where most export wallpapers were produced, promoted the birth of this unprecedented global commodity, and the fourth part analyzes the impact of the enthusiasm for oriental plants in Britain on the market demand for Chinese bird-and-flower wallpapers and discusses the relationship between bird-and-flower wallpapers and the export of botanical paintings. The fifth part examines how Chinese painters created large decorative art based on traditional art under the influence of Western customers from the perspective of artistic style, proving that both Chinese producers and Western consumers contributed to the birth of bird-and- flower wallpapers. The final part explores how the fashion of Chinese wallpaper gradually withdrew from the historical stage and how it is inherited in the decorative arts in the world today. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Yixin Xu was born on February 29th, 1996, in Wuhan, China where she grew up loving art and painting and spent the first 24 years of her life. In high school she became fascinated with decorative arts, so she started reading books introducing different ornaments and patterns all around the world. After high school graduation, she entered College of Chinese Language and Literature at Wuhan University, where she took a variety of courses on Chinese and western history, literature and philosophy. In 2016, she decided to switch to the History Department and do research on history of arts. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 2018 with a thesis written in English titled Female Education Reform and the Living State of Female Artists in Victorian Era. In fall 2018, she started graduate study at Cornell University in the Department of Asian Studies, where she continued her studies on material culture and history of decorative arts. Inspired and encouraged by the faculty and her friends at Cornell, she decided to investigate the cross-cultural communication between China and the west in her future studies. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my committee chair, Professor An-yi Pan who has convincingly guided and encouraged me to work on the topic and concerned about my mental health by having conversations with me each week when my hometown became the center of the pandemic. Without his persistent help, the goal of this thesis would not have been realized. I would like to thank my committee members, Professor Kaja M. McGowan and Professor Jane Marie Law, whose courses and ideas inspired me to explore the topic of my thesis. Their suggestions on the possible connections between Sino-western communication of material culture and South-east Asian art and Japanese art greatly contributed to several; novel perspectives in my thesis. In addition, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to Emile de Bruijn, the collections registrar for the National Trust (UK) and an expert of Chinese export wallpaper, who shared insightful ideas and research recourse that are extremely helpful to my studies. I would like to thank Professor Wenqin Xu of National University of Kaohsiung, Professor Jianfei Zhang, Professor Han Han, Professor Qingwu Wen of Wuhan University, and Professor Yinghe Jiang of Sun Yat-sen University for offering me professional perspectives on Chinese paintings, Chinese export trade and botanic knowledge. I wish to acknowledge the support and great love of my family and my friends. They kept me going on during this hard time of COVID-19 and this work would not have been possible without their input. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ........................................................................................................................................ vii Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1 Literature Review .................................................................................................................................... 2 CHAPTER 1. British Passion for Chinese Products ............................................................................. 10 1.1 Treasure from the Oriental Utopia .............................................................................................. 10 1.2 The East India Company and Sino-British Export Wallpaper Trade ........................................... 13 1.3 Types of Chinese export wallpapers ............................................................................................ 17 CHAPTER 2. Chinese Bird-and-Flower Paintings — the Origin of Bird-and-Flower Wallpapers .... 24 2.1 “Chinese style” wallpaper and wallpapers in China ................................................................... 24 2.2 Chinese bird-and-flower paintings: the inspiration behind bird-and-flower wallpapers ............. 30 2.3 Gusu Woodcut Print: the Predecessor to Bird-and-Flower Wallpaper ........................................ 33 CHAPTER 3. The New Fashion in Lingnan – the Cultural Background to the Appearance of Chinese Export Wallpapers ................................................................................................................................. 40 3.1 The special status of Canton in the 18th century trade ................................................................ 40 3.2 The emergence of Canton professional painters ......................................................................... 43 3.3 Folding screen and porcelain——various carriers of bird-and-flower motifs ............................ 51 CHAPTER 4. The Grand Tour of Botany—Bird-and-Flower Wallpaper and the Enthusiasm for Exotic Plants ..................................................................................................................................................... 58 4.1 The beauty of asymmetry—the charm of a Chinese garden ....................................................... 58 4.2 The love of Chinese plants—Motivation for buying bird-and-flower wallpapers ....................... 61 4.3 The relationship between export botanical paintings and bird-and-flower wallpapers ............... 69 v CHAPTER 5. From Fine Art to Decorative Art—Inheritance and Innovation of Bird-and-Flower Wallpapers ........................................................................................................................................... 82 5.1 The Debate between Decorative Arts and Fine Arts——an alien to Chinese art history ............ 84 5.2 The decorative features of Chinese bird-and-flower paintings ................................................... 89 5.3 The position of bird-and-flower motifs in interior decoration ................................................ 101 5.4 Means of change in bird-and-flower motifs .............................................................................. 102 5.4.1. Confusing seasons ........................................................................................................... 102 5.4.2. Decorative composition .................................................................................................. 106 5.4.3 The faded auspicious meaning ......................................................................................... 112 5.4.4 Replaceable fun ................................................................................................................ 116 CHAPTER 6. The Decline of Bird-and-Flower Wallpapers and the Inheritance of the New Century 118 6.1. The Lost Oriental Paradise——the Changing British Impression of China in the 19th Century ............................................................................................................................................................ 118 6.2. The rise of the arts and crafts movement and the decline of Chinese-style wallpapers ........... 120 6.3. Bird-and-flower wallpapers today—the evolving Chinese style.............................................. 124 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................... 127 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................... 130 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: Section of a late seventeenth century Indian Chintz. Originally stored at Ashburnham Place. [Source: ©Victoria & Albert Museum, London.] ...............................................................................