Spoilum (active 1774-1805), Portrait of a Western Man in a Chinese Landscape

Spoilum (active 1774-1805).

Portrait of a Western Man in a Chinese Landscape.

China, circa 1780.

reverse glass mirror painting.

61 x 45.7 centimetres.
24 x 18 inches.

Frame: 68 x 53 centimetres.

Provenance

Swedish Private Collection.
Martyn Gregory, London.

Exhibitions

Martyn Gregory, Merchants and Mariners: London, 2018-2019, (Catalogue 98, no.97.)

Literature

Thierry Audric, Chinese reverse glass painting 1720-1820, thesis, (Peter Lang, 2020) p.128 illustrated fig. 92.

Patrick Conner, "Mysteries of Deeper Consequences" Westerners in Chinese Reverse-Glass Paintings of the 18th Century, Arts of Asia, September-October 2016, illustrated p. 128, fig. 6.

Depicting a merchant trader in Canton, wearing a dark blue coat over a cream waistcoat and breeches, holding his stick and hat in his right hand, standing before trees beside a river; the boat of a Chinese official anchored nearby, with a parakeet and a pheasant flying above.

Spoilum (active 1770-1805): was a Chinese painter who painted portraits of Chinese and Westerners at the port city of Guangzhou, formerly Canton, from the 1770s until 1805. His name was also given as ‘Spillem’ or ‘Spilum’. His Chinese name is unknown, but it is possible that Spoilum was the artist now known in contemporary Cantonese records as ‘Guan Zuolin’. Little is known of Spoilum’s life, although he came from a family of painters, including his grandson Lam Qua, and travelled extensively in the West.

His portraits of merchants presented them either standing or seated in a river landscape or with an interior with a view through a window. Several examples are extant and this work and others of similar composition are illustrated in Thierry Audric, Chinese Reverse Glass Painting, 1720-1820 (Peter Lang, 2020) p. 126-133. See also Portrait of a Western merchant on the China coast, reverse glass painting, 25.9 x 20.6 cm, Hong Kong Museum of Art; Sotheby’s New York, 20th January 2016, lots 231 and 706; Martyn Gregory, Catalogue 81, London, 2005-2006, no. 117, and Catalogue 78, London, 2002, no.108. Another example can be found at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight (acc. no. LL 8824).

Patrick Conner gives further details about Spoilum's portraiture in 'The Enigma of Spoilum and the Origins of China Trade Painting,' in The Magazine Antiques, March 1998, vol.CLIII, p.418, no.3.

The earliest dated reverse glass portrait by Spoilum is of Captain Thomas Fry, dated 1774. It is thought he began painting oils on canvas in the 1780s, being possibly the first Chinese artist to do so, instead of using the more usual Chinese style of inks on paper or silk. As Guangzhou was the only port at which Westerners were allowed to trade at this time, such works are likely to have been produced for the Western market. Spoilum had connections with not only the British, but also with the American trade through Guangzhou, and a number of his works are now held in American collections including the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.

Crossman describes ‘the characteristics of Spoilum’s distinctive style’ to be: ‘the slight smile to the mouth… one eye slightly higher than the other, and the crisp delineation of the facial features.’ (Carl L. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade: Paintings, furnishings and exotic curiosities (Antique Collectors’ Club, 1991), p. 36.)

Chinese mirror paintings

Mirror paintings were produced in Canton, for export to the West, during the 18th and early 19th Centuries, and the subject matter varied considerably depending on when they were executed during this period. The technique of ‘reverse’ painting was already well-known in Europe and the design was traced on the back of the mirror plate, and then the areas of tin and mercury mirror backing were removed using a steel implement in order that they could be painted. During the mid-eighteenth Century, Chinese reverse paintings were in great demand.

Crossman states that many of these had mirrored backgrounds above the painted decoration and were placed in elaborate Chippendale frames to serve as mantel glasses or pier mirrors. The introduction of portrait figures in the mirrored landscape panels probably began early in the third quarter of the eighteenth Century, and these served as a background for seating or standing western (usually English) merchants.

Earliest examples date from around 1750 and were generally landscapes, in both the Chinese or western taste, with mirror backing. The most popular in England were those depicting native Chinese landscapes with figures and were commonly placed in. By the 1780s, it was fashionable to copy English and European engravings and later, during the nineteenth Century, subjects became simpler, with the artists focusing increasingly on the portrayal of individual figures, as in this example.

Generally, the glass used for such pieces was imported from England, despite China’s long history of glassmaking. In Ancient China, glass was used as a substitute for jade – a material for making decorative objects. The Emperor Kangxi had established a glass workshop within the Forbidden City by 1696, which produced a large number of ritual utensils and ornaments, but no flat glass. Contemporary reports note that the Chinese attempts at making flat glass were frequently ‘thin and brittle’ in contrast to the ‘thick and crystal-like’ glass produced in the West, which led to significant amounts of window and mirrored glass being imported into China.

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance