Unknown Chinese Artist
Chinese Export reverse glass painting depicting Pict Warriors, circa 1800
Qing Dynasty
after the 1739 engraving by John White
after the 1739 engraving by John White
Oil paint, silvering on glass
47 x 55.25 cm (incl frame)
18 ½ x 21 ¾ in
18 ½ x 21 ¾ in
7182
Further images
Provenance
Acquired from Christopher Hodsoll, London, in 1992Private Collection USA
A Chinese reverse glass mirror painting of a male and female Pict warrior based upon the 1739 engraving by John White, originally inspired by the 1585 painting A Young Daughter...
A Chinese reverse glass mirror painting of a male and female Pict warrior based upon the 1739 engraving by John White, originally inspired by the 1585 painting A Young Daughter of the Picts by Jacques Le Moyne. The painting depicts tattooed warriors brandishing the head of their fallen enemy, set in a rural landscape with animals and primitive built structures in the background. The work has been painted with oil paints and silvering in glass. It is mounted in a foliate carved and pierced giltwood frame.
Image Source:
Although several iterations of the original image exist, this painting was most likely copied from an illustration by John Smith in James Robinson’s A History of England published in 1739. Whilst this painting is a copy Smith’s illustration, the original image is in fact much older. Smith’s engraving is inspired by Belgian artist Johann Theodor De Bry’s Pictish plates from his book India Occidentalis (Grand Voyages) published 1590. De Bry also included these plates when he published an illustrated copy of Thomas Harriot's A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Lande of Virginia in 1590. The inclusion of these images was intended to be a sympathetic attempt at showing the similarities between the ancient Britons and the Native American tribes of Virginia.
De Bry was a collector of the French artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues and De Bry’s Pictish plates were inspired by Le Moyne’s now famous A Young Daughter of the Picts, c. 1585. Le Moyne’s painting was originally attributed to the artist John White, whose works were also featured in De Bry’s edition of Harriott’s book on Virginia. However, it was reattributed to him after acquisition by Paul Mellon in 1967.
Interest in the original Pictish images grew around the time of the glass painting. In 1795, the infamous Shakespeare forger William Henry Ireland produced a sketch of a Pictish woman based heavily on the earlier works. Later in 1815, Charles Hamilton Smith used the original images as the basis for the illustrations of Caledonian and Maeatae apparel in his book The Costumes of the Original Inhabitants of the British Isles. Western engravings such as these were able to be copied so successfully by Chinese reverse glass painters, as prints published in books were easily transportable across large distances.
The Picts:
The Picts had been a source of fascination since ancient times. Their name derives from the Latin ‘Picti’ and means ‘the painted people’ or ‘the people of designs’. Upon facing Pict warriors on the battlefield, Julius Caesar described them as ‘fierce as wild beasts’ and wrote that ‘they dye themselves with woad, which produces a blue colour, and makes their appearance in battle more terrible’.
The Picts were a society of tribes native to modern-day Scotland. Pictland and comprised of several kingdoms covering all Scottish regions except the Lowlands, Argyll and Bute and lasted from around 300BC to 900AD. Despite their fearsome reputation, the Picts were a sophisticated society; independent, skilled and artistic. Their relics are richly decorative; excavated jewellery and metalwork, alongside the plethora of carved monument stones scattered across the Scottish landscape show intricate patterns, swirling motifs and depictions of mythic beasts, signifying the importance of art and design in Pictish culture.
Imagery:
Whilst the basis of the images is the same, there are significant differences between the glass painting and the earlier prints. The warriors in the Pictish plates notably wilder looking, with longer hair and vivid tattoos from head to toe. By the time the image has progressed to the iteration in the reverse glass painting, both figures are partially clothed, their hair styled and their body art much reduced.
Nowhere is this change more evident than the figure of the woman. Gone are most of her tattoos and her sword, and though she retains her spear, she resembles more of a shepherdess than a warrior. These changes may be an attempt to make her more palatable in keeping with the 18th Century fashion for the pastoral in art. The inclusion of fallow deer and farm animals adds to rural idyll and were it not for the severed head, the scene could be arcadian.
An interesting characteristic of the reverse glass painting and the original prints is that they were created from the perspective of one culture imagining another. The first description of the Picts as painted warriors comes not from themselves, but the perspective of their potential Roman invaders. The Renaissance artists who created the Pictish prints in the 16th Century were imagining a culture as distant to them as the people of Europe and America were to the Canton artists of the 18th Century.
One aspect where the influence of the Chinese artist can be seen undisputedly in this work alone is with the inclusion of cherry blossoms. The distinctive pale pink flowers have been painted across the torso and legs of the Pict woman. Cherry blossoms have a rich history and cultural significance in East Asia but were not imported to the West on a wide scale until the early 20th Century. The cultural meaning of cherry blossoms differs between East Asian countries, but in China they symbolise feminine power and beauty, appropriate attributes for the Pictish female warrior in the painting.
Chinese Reverse Glass Painting:
Chinese reverse glass paintings were produced by an artist painting an image onto the back of a sheet of glass. Paintings are distinctive for their luminosity, gloss and depth of colour which are seldom achieved in other mediums. Due to their fragile nature, far fewer reverse glass paintings survive, compared to those made of traditional, more durable materials such as canvas. Of those that do, their subjects are predominantly Chinese landscapes and scenes or portraits of maritime travellers. Rarer still are copies of European engravings, such as this painting. Chinese reverse glass paintings are unique to other forms of reverse glass painting due to their use of oil paints rather than glue-based water colours and white paint background as opposed black to illuminate the colours.
Whilst popular in Europe, reverse glass painting was unknown in China until the arrival of the Italian Jesuit priest Father Giuseppe Castiglione in 1715. Through his art, Castiglione, also known by his Chinese name Lang Shining, found favour with the Emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong. Despite the period being a dangerous time for the Jesuit mission in China, Castiglione’s work was so admired by the emperors, that he was entrusted with the decoration of the Imperial Garden in Beijing.
The popularity of reverse glass painting grew and by the late 1700’s a network of glass painting workshops had developed in Southeast China. With the evolution of the Canton trade system, foreign visitors to cities such as Macau and Guangzhou were eager for souvenirs of their travels and maritime traders sought goods for export that would appeal to the western market. Reverse glass painting was an attractive craft which could be produced quickly and affordably in Chinese workshops to suit Western tastes.
Image Source:
Although several iterations of the original image exist, this painting was most likely copied from an illustration by John Smith in James Robinson’s A History of England published in 1739. Whilst this painting is a copy Smith’s illustration, the original image is in fact much older. Smith’s engraving is inspired by Belgian artist Johann Theodor De Bry’s Pictish plates from his book India Occidentalis (Grand Voyages) published 1590. De Bry also included these plates when he published an illustrated copy of Thomas Harriot's A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Lande of Virginia in 1590. The inclusion of these images was intended to be a sympathetic attempt at showing the similarities between the ancient Britons and the Native American tribes of Virginia.
De Bry was a collector of the French artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues and De Bry’s Pictish plates were inspired by Le Moyne’s now famous A Young Daughter of the Picts, c. 1585. Le Moyne’s painting was originally attributed to the artist John White, whose works were also featured in De Bry’s edition of Harriott’s book on Virginia. However, it was reattributed to him after acquisition by Paul Mellon in 1967.
Interest in the original Pictish images grew around the time of the glass painting. In 1795, the infamous Shakespeare forger William Henry Ireland produced a sketch of a Pictish woman based heavily on the earlier works. Later in 1815, Charles Hamilton Smith used the original images as the basis for the illustrations of Caledonian and Maeatae apparel in his book The Costumes of the Original Inhabitants of the British Isles. Western engravings such as these were able to be copied so successfully by Chinese reverse glass painters, as prints published in books were easily transportable across large distances.
The Picts:
The Picts had been a source of fascination since ancient times. Their name derives from the Latin ‘Picti’ and means ‘the painted people’ or ‘the people of designs’. Upon facing Pict warriors on the battlefield, Julius Caesar described them as ‘fierce as wild beasts’ and wrote that ‘they dye themselves with woad, which produces a blue colour, and makes their appearance in battle more terrible’.
The Picts were a society of tribes native to modern-day Scotland. Pictland and comprised of several kingdoms covering all Scottish regions except the Lowlands, Argyll and Bute and lasted from around 300BC to 900AD. Despite their fearsome reputation, the Picts were a sophisticated society; independent, skilled and artistic. Their relics are richly decorative; excavated jewellery and metalwork, alongside the plethora of carved monument stones scattered across the Scottish landscape show intricate patterns, swirling motifs and depictions of mythic beasts, signifying the importance of art and design in Pictish culture.
Imagery:
Whilst the basis of the images is the same, there are significant differences between the glass painting and the earlier prints. The warriors in the Pictish plates notably wilder looking, with longer hair and vivid tattoos from head to toe. By the time the image has progressed to the iteration in the reverse glass painting, both figures are partially clothed, their hair styled and their body art much reduced.
Nowhere is this change more evident than the figure of the woman. Gone are most of her tattoos and her sword, and though she retains her spear, she resembles more of a shepherdess than a warrior. These changes may be an attempt to make her more palatable in keeping with the 18th Century fashion for the pastoral in art. The inclusion of fallow deer and farm animals adds to rural idyll and were it not for the severed head, the scene could be arcadian.
An interesting characteristic of the reverse glass painting and the original prints is that they were created from the perspective of one culture imagining another. The first description of the Picts as painted warriors comes not from themselves, but the perspective of their potential Roman invaders. The Renaissance artists who created the Pictish prints in the 16th Century were imagining a culture as distant to them as the people of Europe and America were to the Canton artists of the 18th Century.
One aspect where the influence of the Chinese artist can be seen undisputedly in this work alone is with the inclusion of cherry blossoms. The distinctive pale pink flowers have been painted across the torso and legs of the Pict woman. Cherry blossoms have a rich history and cultural significance in East Asia but were not imported to the West on a wide scale until the early 20th Century. The cultural meaning of cherry blossoms differs between East Asian countries, but in China they symbolise feminine power and beauty, appropriate attributes for the Pictish female warrior in the painting.
Chinese Reverse Glass Painting:
Chinese reverse glass paintings were produced by an artist painting an image onto the back of a sheet of glass. Paintings are distinctive for their luminosity, gloss and depth of colour which are seldom achieved in other mediums. Due to their fragile nature, far fewer reverse glass paintings survive, compared to those made of traditional, more durable materials such as canvas. Of those that do, their subjects are predominantly Chinese landscapes and scenes or portraits of maritime travellers. Rarer still are copies of European engravings, such as this painting. Chinese reverse glass paintings are unique to other forms of reverse glass painting due to their use of oil paints rather than glue-based water colours and white paint background as opposed black to illuminate the colours.
Whilst popular in Europe, reverse glass painting was unknown in China until the arrival of the Italian Jesuit priest Father Giuseppe Castiglione in 1715. Through his art, Castiglione, also known by his Chinese name Lang Shining, found favour with the Emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong. Despite the period being a dangerous time for the Jesuit mission in China, Castiglione’s work was so admired by the emperors, that he was entrusted with the decoration of the Imperial Garden in Beijing.
The popularity of reverse glass painting grew and by the late 1700’s a network of glass painting workshops had developed in Southeast China. With the evolution of the Canton trade system, foreign visitors to cities such as Macau and Guangzhou were eager for souvenirs of their travels and maritime traders sought goods for export that would appeal to the western market. Reverse glass painting was an attractive craft which could be produced quickly and affordably in Chinese workshops to suit Western tastes.