Applying Fertiliser
1800
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1800
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Applying Fertiliser is a 1800 paint by Unknown, a Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows men applying fertiliser in a field. It's part of a set of 12 paintings about the tea industry in China. The paintings were made for Europeans who wanted to know how tea was grown and processed in China, which was the only place tea came from at the time. To learn more, look up the technique of sfumato.
A rectangular watercolor painting in shades of blue and green depicts laborers spreading fertilizer across tea fields. Part of a twelve-work series illustrating the Chinese tea industry, it reflects Europe’s 18th-century curiosity about tea cultivation and processing. The set was produced when China supplied the world’s tea before the mid-1700s. Acquired by the museum in 1894 from Mrs. L. MacKenzie, its provenance was confirmed through Asia Department records in 2022.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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