Punch bowl, China, circa 1785. Porcelain. The exterior features a detailed and continuous view of the Hongs at Canton and shows, from left to right, the flags of Holland, France, Imperial Austria, Sweden, Great Britain and Denmark.

 

Views of the Pearl River Delta

Macao, Canton and Hong Kong

SALEM, MASS. -- With their dazzling lights and bustling streets, it's not hard to imagine that the Chinese cities of Canton, Macao, and Hong Kong dominated trade with the West 200 years ago. However, the Eighteenth Century view of each city was much different from today. An exhibition at Salem's Peabody Essex Museum transports viewers back to those vibrant port cities in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries. "Views of the Pearl River Delta: Macao, Canton and Hong Kong" presents landscape and port views encountered by Westerners during two centuries of China trade. The exhibition, organized in conjunction with the Hong Kong Museum of Art, runs through December 15.

"`Views of the Pearl River Delta' celebrates two centuries of commercial and cultural exchange between China and the West," says William R. Sargent, curator of Asian Export Art at the Peabody Essex Museum. "This exhibition explores the West's fascination with the Pearl River Delta's remarkable landscape. The objects in the exhibition were selected for their beauty as well as historical value." The works were selected from the collections of the Peabody Essex Museum and the Hong Kong Museum of Art.

Artist Auguste Borget, who visited the China coast from 1838 to 1839, wrote, "... the country is really unlike every other, I found in the landscape an air of strangeness which charmed me." Borget was not alone in his appreciation of the Chinese landscape. The Western traders who made fortunes in the China trade were enamored of the luxury goods produced there and frequently commissioned works of fine and decorative art that depicted the serene landscape and busy ports they encountered in the Far East. Many of these views can be found in the nearly 100 works on display, including paintings, drawings, prints, lacquer, furniture, silver, fans, and porcelain.

Before photography, paintings and drawings of Macao, Canton, and Hong Kong were the only illustrations of these exotic ports. "These works depicted unusual landscapes, walled cities and spectacular architecture, helping to establish the Western vision of China as a land of silk, porcelain, and tea," notes Sargent. "A nearly insatiable market for views of the Pearl River was fueled by the entrepreneurs who conducted business there, as well as their business partners and families, many who had never traveled to China but heard marvelous tales about the land and its culture."

Included are treasures such as Thomas Daniell's depiction of "The Lianhua Pagoda" and George Chinnery's melancholy "View of the Praya Grande from a Doorway." Luxury goods such as furniture, silver, and porcelain display the artistry of Chinese artisans, famed for their craftsmanship. Chinese artists frequently created sets of four port views in oil or watercolor, or entire albums of up to 24 or more related scenes. European artists frequently produced drawings for publication in travel books and to create sets of prints on China.

The Peabody Essex Museum's collection of Asian Export Art, initiated with the institution's founding nearly 200 years ago, gained national stature when the museum emerged with the China Trade Museum of Milton, Massachusetts in 1984. Today, the department, headed by William Sargent, is devoted to studying decorative arts made in China, Japan, and India for export to the West. The museum's collection, including more than 1,000 paintings on paper and more than 400 paintings on canvas by Chinese artists depicting the China trade, totals more than 16,000 decorative art objects and is considered the most comprehensive of its kind in the world.

Accompanying the exhibit is a catalogue entitled Views of the Pearl River Delta: Macao, Canton and Hong Kong, written by William Sargent, with an essay by Patrick Connor and forewords by Dan L. Monroe, executive director of the Peabody Essex Museum, and Gerard Tsang, chief curator of the Hong Kong Museum of Art. The catalogue is available in softcover for $45 from the Peabody Essex Museum.

The Peabody Essex Museum is on Liberty and Essex streets in downtown Salem. In addition to Asian export art, the museum features collections of maritime art and history, Native American art, art of Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands, Essex County natural history, and American decorative art and architecture. The museum also owns and operates tours of four historic houses. Telephone 800/745-4054.