Period:Unknown Production date:1793-1796
Materials:paper
Technique:drawn
Subjects:communications chinese reading/writing
Dimensions:Height: 443 millimetres (album cover) Height: 235 millimetres (sheet) Width: 183 millimetres Width: 334 millimetres
Description:
A citizen or tradesman of China leaning over a desk, writing; from an album of 82 drawings of China Watercolour, ink and graphite
IMG
![图片[1]-drawing; album BM-1865-0520.199-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Unknown/43/mid_01428420_001.jpg)
Comments:There is a list of descriptions of the subjects inserted in the front of the album. This drawing is listed as: “7 A Tradesman writing, This figure exhibits the dress of the middle class of people, his Girdle contains an handkerchief, purse for Tobacco, & a case for his Knife & Chopsticks.”A very similar figure is replicated by Alexander in two other works. First, he appears in a watercolour in the collection of the India Office Library, BL, entitled “Two Mandarins and a Scribe at a Writing-table” (see Legouix, 1980, p. 34 for a black and white reproduction). Legouix identifies this as a preparatory drawing for plate 42 of “The Costume of China” (1805), which is entitled “Examination of a Culprit before a Mandarin” and contains the same figure. In the latter, the figure writing is identified as a ‘secretary’ and has a different-coloured costume. There are other compositional differences between the preparatory drawing and finished print.For further information about the album, see comment for 1865,0520.193.
Materials:paper
Technique:drawn
Subjects:communications chinese reading/writing
Dimensions:Height: 443 millimetres (album cover) Height: 235 millimetres (sheet) Width: 183 millimetres Width: 334 millimetres
Description:
A citizen or tradesman of China leaning over a desk, writing; 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: “7 A Tradesman writing, This figure exhibits the dress of the middle class of people, his Girdle contains an handkerchief, purse for Tobacco, & a case for his Knife & Chopsticks.”A very similar figure is replicated by Alexander in two other works. First, he appears in a watercolour in the collection of the India Office Library, BL, entitled “Two Mandarins and a Scribe at a Writing-table” (see Legouix, 1980, p. 34 for a black and white reproduction). Legouix identifies this as a preparatory drawing for plate 42 of “The Costume of China” (1805), which is entitled “Examination of a Culprit before a Mandarin” and contains the same figure. In the latter, the figure writing is identified as a ‘secretary’ and has a different-coloured costume. There are other compositional differences between the preparatory drawing and finished print.For further information about the album, see comment for 1865,0520.193.
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