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10 Fascinating Facts About Chinoiserie
10 Fascinating Facts About Chinoiserie
Source: http://fiveminutehistory.com/10-fasc...t-chinoiserie/
Chinoiserie was once the most coveted fashion of the aristocracy
During the 17th and 18th centuries, Europeans became fascinated with Asian cultures and traditions. They loved to imitate or evoke Asian motifs in Western art, architecture, landscaping, furniture, and fashion.
China seemed a mysterious, far-away place and the lack of first-hand experiences only added to the mystique.
Chinoiserie derives from the French word chinois, meaning “Chinese”, or “after the Chinese taste”. It is a Western aesthetic inspired by Eastern design.
The fact remains that four thousand years ago, when we did not know how to read, they [the Chinese] knew everything essentially useful of which we boast today- Voltaire
A folding screen was one of the most popular expressions of Chinoiserie, often decorated with beautiful art.
Themes included mythology, scenes of palace life, nature, and romance in Chinese literature—a young lady in love could take a curious peek hidden from behind a folding screen.
Chinese Folding Screen. 18th century. Wood, glass paper
The Toilette by François Boucher, 1742
Chinoiserie’s popularity grew with rising trade in the East
Rising trade with China and East Asia during the 17th and 18th centuries brought an influx of Chinese and Indian goods into Europe aboard ships from the English, Dutch, French, and Swedish East India Companies.
The European Factories in Canton by Thomas Allom, 1838
By the middle of the 19th century, the British East India Company had become the dominant player in East Asian trading, its rule extending across most of India, Burma, Malaya, Singapore, and British Hong Kong.
A fifth of the world’s population was under the trading influence of the British East India Company.
(British) East India House by Thomas Malton the Younger (1748-1804)
Chinoiserie began with tea drinking
Drinking tea was the height of fashion for ladies of good taste and required an appropriate chinoiserie mise en scène.
Tea drinking was a fundamental part of polite society; much of the interest in both Chinese export wares and chinoiserie rose from the desire to create appropriate settings for the ritual of tea drinking - Beevers
Tea Leaves by William McGregor Paxton
1743. Tea Service. Italian. Porcelain.
1762 Tea Caddy. British. Silver.
1730. Sugar Box. Austrian. Hard-paste porcelain.
1770 Tea Casket, British, Staffordshire. White enamel on copper painted in polychrome enamels.
Tea and sugar were expensive commodities during the eighteenth century and this chest could be locked to secure its valuable contents.
Containing two canisters for tea (green and black) and a larger one for sugar, the pastoral scenes, and Italianate landscapes, combined with Rococo gilding against a pink ground, create an opulent effect.
1770 Tea Casket, British, Staffordshire. White enamel on copper painted in polychrome enamels.
1726 Pair of Tea Caddies. British. Silver.
Aristocratic women were famous collectors of chinoiserie porcelain
Among them were Queen Mary, Queen Anne, Henrietta Howard, and the Duchess of Queensbury—all socially important women, whose homes served as examples of good taste and sociability.
Wealthy women helped define the prevailing vogue through their purchasing power. One story tells of a keen competition between Margaret, 2nd Duchess of Portland, and Elizabeth, Countess of Ilchester, for a Japanese blue and white plate.
Chinoiserie porcelain from Frankfurt c. 1700
Faience with Chinese scenes. Nevers Manufactory. c. 1680
Reflecting the English factory’s focus on Asian porcelains as a primary source of inspiration, this plate with its skillfully composed chinoiserie decoration, is an ambitious work from the 1750s, the decade during which Bow first achieved commercially viable production.
1755. Plate. British. Bow Porcelain Factory. Soft-paste porcelain
1755 Chines Musicians. Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory. Soft-past porcelain.
Distinguished by the chinoiserie scenes painted by Charles-Nicolas Dodin, these elephant vases from c. 1760 are thought to have been commissioned by Mme. de Pompadour, chief mistress of Louis XV of France. They are among the rarest forms produced by the famous Sèvres manufactory in the suburbs of Paris.
Pair of Vases. Charles Nicolas Dodin, Sèvres, France, 1760.
Chinoiserie is related to the Rococo style
Both styles are characterized by exuberant decoration, a focus on materials, stylized nature, and subject matter depicting leisure and pleasure.
Chateau de Chantilly. The Apartments of the Princes of Condé
The Cabinet of chinoiserie. Nymphenburg Palace, Munich, Germany.
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