Period:Unknown Production date:1793-1796
Materials:paper
Technique:drawn
Subjects:actor/actress chinese
Dimensions:Height: 443 millimetres (album cover) Height: 223 millimetres (sheet) Width: 179 millimetres Width: 334 millimetres
Description:
A Chinese actor or comedian in the character of an enraged military officer; in ancient dress, brandishing a sword in either hand and with flags at his back, standing on a tiled(?) floor; from an album of 82 drawings of China Watercolour, ink and graphite
IMG
![图片[1]-drawing; album; print study BM-1865-0520.203-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Unknown/43/mid_01428428_001.jpg)
![图片[2]-drawing; album; print study BM-1865-0520.203-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Unknown/43/mid_PDB389981.jpg)
Comments:There is a list of descriptions of the subjects inserted in the front of the album. This drawing is listed as: “11 Portrait of a Player, enacting the character of an irritated General. Vide D.o [Costume of China].”There is a different rendition of the same subject, aquatinted as Plate 29 in “The Costume of China” (published 1805; etched lettering below the image: “London Publish’d Aug.t 13.th 1801, by G. and W. Nicol, Pall mall”). The accompanying text identifies the drawing as made from the life at a performance given for the Embassy at Guangzhou on 19th December 1793 and reveals that the ‘female’ figure depicted as standing in a doorway to the left is actually a eunuch, as women were discouraged from appearing on stage. The reason for the disparity between the date in “Costume of China” and the 14th December, given as the inscription to the BM drawing, is unknown.Other related drawings are found in the collections of the India Office Library, BL (a preparatory sketch of the head and shoulders of the player) and Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. Legouix suggests that a figure in one of the staircase window lights at the end of the Long Gallery in the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, is loosely modelled on Alexander’s “Costume of China” illustration (Legouix, 1980, p. 75). For further information about the album, see comment for 1865,0520.193.
Materials:paper
Technique:drawn
Subjects:actor/actress chinese
Dimensions:Height: 443 millimetres (album cover) Height: 223 millimetres (sheet) Width: 179 millimetres Width: 334 millimetres
Description:
A Chinese actor or comedian in the character of an enraged military officer; in ancient dress, brandishing a sword in either hand and with flags at his back, standing on a tiled(?) floor; from an album of 82 drawings of China Watercolour, ink and graphite
IMG
Comments:There is a list of descriptions of the subjects inserted in the front of the album. This drawing is listed as: “11 Portrait of a Player, enacting the character of an irritated General. Vide D.o [Costume of China].”There is a different rendition of the same subject, aquatinted as Plate 29 in “The Costume of China” (published 1805; etched lettering below the image: “London Publish’d Aug.t 13.th 1801, by G. and W. Nicol, Pall mall”). The accompanying text identifies the drawing as made from the life at a performance given for the Embassy at Guangzhou on 19th December 1793 and reveals that the ‘female’ figure depicted as standing in a doorway to the left is actually a eunuch, as women were discouraged from appearing on stage. The reason for the disparity between the date in “Costume of China” and the 14th December, given as the inscription to the BM drawing, is unknown.Other related drawings are found in the collections of the India Office Library, BL (a preparatory sketch of the head and shoulders of the player) and Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. Legouix suggests that a figure in one of the staircase window lights at the end of the Long Gallery in the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, is loosely modelled on Alexander’s “Costume of China” illustration (Legouix, 1980, p. 75). For further information about the album, see comment for 1865,0520.193.
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