| Entitled "A Tanka Boatwoman", the painting on the left was created by the renowned Western artist George Chinnery in the mid-19th century. The subject in this painting is rendered in quick but sure brushwork, with the artist's favourite device of using dashing vermillion in the cheeks and full lips, and shows the use of shadows under the arm and between the fingers. The picture on the right is a Chinese export painting entitled "Portrait of a Chinese Lady with a Small Dog". The elements, and in particular the pose of the subject, mirror those in Chinnery's "A Tanka Boatwoman", but show less sophisticated skill. Interestingly, even the background is impregnated with the formulae Chinnery used in his Chinese merchant portraits, which often included a column, a lantern, flowers in ceramic pots, antiquities and a distant landscape. |
