Fan mei gui
1780
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1780
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Dominant colour
Fan mei gui is a 1780 paint by Unknown, a Rococo painting work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows a rose with detailed petals and leaves. It's part of a set of botanical paintings from China. These paintings were made for European markets and often featured plants that were new to Europeans. The artist used simple colors to create a sense of depth, and you can learn more about this style by looking into the technique of chiaroscuro.
A rectangular watercolor painting in muted tones depicts tall, thorned stems bearing red flowers with layered petals, likely representing the *fan mei gui*, or "foreign rose." Part of an 18th-century set of botanical subjects, the work was produced during a period when such "China pictures" were commonly traded from Canton to Europe in large quantities. The Chinese caption identifies the subject as a foreign rose, reflecting the cross-cultural exchange in visual documentation of flora. Acquired in 1889 from E. Parsons, the painting is held in a collection documented through Asia Department…
Read the full account in the museum source.
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