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Untitled, portrait of elderly woman
ca. 1880 - 189019th century
12 1/2 in. x 9 3/4 in. (31.75 cm x 24.77 cm)
, Chinese
Object Type:
Drawings and Watercolors
Creation Place:
Asia, China
Medium and Support:
ink and wash drawing on paper
Credit Line:
Carleton College Art Collection, gift of Ian and Deane Barbour
Accession Number:
2003.082
This small, virtually photographic painting is a study for a larger ancestral portrait. The image, set in the middle of a very large sheet of folded-up paper, came from a workshop in which the master artist rendered the difficult facial features and studio assistants filled in the body.
This work is anonymous—the concept of the artist as portraitist wasn't significant in 19th-century China. The portrait is a gift from Carleton professor emeritus Ian Barbour and his wife, Deane, and has a special connection to Asia through Ian's family. His grandfather, a civil engineer surveying for the Chinese railroad, purchased this in Beijing in 1890. At that time, Westerners generally were interested only in porcelain if they were looking at Chinese art and artifacts; something like this would have been considered more of a curiosity than a work of fine art.
- Laurel Bradley, Carleton College Calendar, 2005
This work is anonymous—the concept of the artist as portraitist wasn't significant in 19th-century China. The portrait is a gift from Carleton professor emeritus Ian Barbour and his wife, Deane, and has a special connection to Asia through Ian's family. His grandfather, a civil engineer surveying for the Chinese railroad, purchased this in Beijing in 1890. At that time, Westerners generally were interested only in porcelain if they were looking at Chinese art and artifacts; something like this would have been considered more of a curiosity than a work of fine art.
- Laurel Bradley, Carleton College Calendar, 2005
Keywords
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This object has the following keywords:
19th Century,
Chinese*,
drawing (image-making)*,
drawings (visual works)*,
ink*,
ink washes*,
paper (fiber product)*,
pen-and-wash drawings*,
portraits*,
portraits
- 19th Century
- Chinese - Describes works created by the people of the same name living in China.
- drawing (image-making) - Producing visible forms primarily by delineation, usually by the direct application of material or instrument to the surface of the support.
- drawings (visual works) - Visual works produced by drawing, which is the application of lines on a surface, often paper, by using a pencil, pen, chalk, or some other tracing instrument to focus on the delineation of form rather than the application of color. This term is often defined broadly to refer to computer-generated images as well.
- ink - A fluid medium used for drawings or tracings. An opaque, usually black, pigment is mixed with a vehicle such as water to produce a fluid which can be applied with a pen or stylus. Through the end of the 19th century, ink was supplied dried in stick or block form which was ground and mixed with water as needed. At the beginning of this century prepared ink became popular.
- ink washes - Transparent layers or washes applied to a drawing, either with ink or watercolor, in order to create an atmospheric effect.
- paper (fiber product) - Refers generally to all types of matted or felted sheets or webs of fiber formed and dried on a fine screen from a pulpy water suspension. The fibers may be animal, such as hair, silk or wool, or mineral, such as asbestos, or synthetic. However most paper is made from cellulosic plant fiber, such as from wood pulp, grass, cotton, linen, and straw.
- pen-and-wash drawings - Drawings made using a pen, then embellished with transparent washes of ink or watercolor to create an atmospheric effect.
- portraits - Representations of real individuals that are intended to capture a known or supposed likeness. For representations of fictional or mythological characters, see "figures (representations)."
- portraits
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