RARE SET OF TWELVE CHINESE EXPORT WATERCOLOUR 'MARRIAGE PROCESSION' PAINTINGS
QING DYNASTY, 19TH CENTURY
清 外銷水彩畫 出嫁圖（共十二幅）watercolour on paper, each painted with part of a marriage procession including various figures including musicians, carrier with dowry, porters for palanquins, groom and bride meeting groom's parents, and the firstborn child, some painting attached at the top-left corner with corresponding titles of the scene (12)
largest: 32.8cm x 48.1cm 
As trade with China increased throughout the Qing dynasty, the Western curiosity regarding life in the East grew with it. In the pre-photography world, paintings (particularly watercolours that could more easily be bound in albums and transported back), were the medium in which this fascination was sated. Indeed, by the end of the eighteenth century, no visit to Canton was complete without the purchase of a set of watercolours. To appeal to this foreign market, these images were often highly romanticised and displayed an increased use of Western perspective and shading. The blank backgrounds of this series are very significant; no attempt has been made to put the figures in a Westernised context, instead retaining the Chinese tradition of depicting and celebrating the activity in isolation.A favourite subject matter of Chinese export art was images of figures and daily life, and this set is rare due to the depiction of a marriage procession in great detail. A set of 100 Chinese export watercolour paintings depicting different trades and occupations in Canton, attributed to Paqua and dated to c. 1790, comparable in style and size, is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, accession number: D.104-1898. A further comparable set of 24 watercolour paintings depicting different scenes relating to an opera about the murder of a husband by his consort and her lover, dated to the 19th century, is in the collection of the British Museum, object reference number: 1877,0714,0.1084-1107.