Period:Unknown Production date:1793-1796
Materials:paper
Technique:drawn
Subjects:chinese sculpture
Dimensions:Height: 443 millimetres (album cover) Height: 234 millimetres (sheet) Width: 182 millimetres Width: 334 millimetres
Description:
A bronze lion and two studies of ladies feet, with and without shoes; three very detailed studies on the same page; from an album of 82 drawings of China Watercolour, ink and graphite
IMG
![图片[1]-drawing; album; print study BM-1865-0520.273-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Unknown/43/mid_01443508_001.jpg)
Comments:There is a list of descriptions of the subjects inserted in the front of the album. This drawing is described as: “81. A Bronze Lion, at Yuen-min-yuen, & Ladies feet dress’d & undress’d. The Lion is mention’d in Sir Geo: Stauntons Acc.t. Page 310 of Vol. 2.d and the ladies feet are described in Page 421 of Vol 1.st.” As might be expected, the British men visiting China were fascinated by the practice of foot-binding prevalent amongst the country’s women, with Alexander describing it in his journal as an “extraordinary custom”. Alexander and his co-travellers strove to get a cast of a Chinese woman’s foot and it appears that they were ultimately successful, as Staunton’s “Account” informs the reader that the engraving included in volume 1, entitled “Chinese Women’s Feet” and which again illustrates both bare feet and feet in shoes, was taken from “an exact model…of a Chinese lady’s foot.” As Legouix notes, the engraver of this image mistakenly inscribed it “R. Alexander, del.” rather than “W. Alexander, del.”. There is another drawing for the engraving of the feet in a volume in the India Office Collection, BL. (Legouix, 1980, p. 58).Alexander’s drawing of the statue of a lion was also engraved for Staunton’s “Account”. This lion was one of two situated on marble pedastals outside of the Hall of Audience in the Yuanming Yuan, a royal residence destroyed in 1860 by an Anglo-French expeditionary force. Staunton used the lion as visual evidence of what he believed to be Chinese artists’ lack of ability in sculpting, likening it to a knight wearing a wig from the time of Charles I (Staunton, vol. 2, 1796, pp. 310-311).For further information about the album, see comment for 1865,0520.193.
Materials:paper
Technique:drawn
Subjects:chinese sculpture
Dimensions:Height: 443 millimetres (album cover) Height: 234 millimetres (sheet) Width: 182 millimetres Width: 334 millimetres
Description:
A bronze lion and two studies of ladies feet, with and without shoes; three very detailed studies on the same page; 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 described as: “81. A Bronze Lion, at Yuen-min-yuen, & Ladies feet dress’d & undress’d. The Lion is mention’d in Sir Geo: Stauntons Acc.t. Page 310 of Vol. 2.d and the ladies feet are described in Page 421 of Vol 1.st.” As might be expected, the British men visiting China were fascinated by the practice of foot-binding prevalent amongst the country’s women, with Alexander describing it in his journal as an “extraordinary custom”. Alexander and his co-travellers strove to get a cast of a Chinese woman’s foot and it appears that they were ultimately successful, as Staunton’s “Account” informs the reader that the engraving included in volume 1, entitled “Chinese Women’s Feet” and which again illustrates both bare feet and feet in shoes, was taken from “an exact model…of a Chinese lady’s foot.” As Legouix notes, the engraver of this image mistakenly inscribed it “R. Alexander, del.” rather than “W. Alexander, del.”. There is another drawing for the engraving of the feet in a volume in the India Office Collection, BL. (Legouix, 1980, p. 58).Alexander’s drawing of the statue of a lion was also engraved for Staunton’s “Account”. This lion was one of two situated on marble pedastals outside of the Hall of Audience in the Yuanming Yuan, a royal residence destroyed in 1860 by an Anglo-French expeditionary force. Staunton used the lion as visual evidence of what he believed to be Chinese artists’ lack of ability in sculpting, likening it to a knight wearing a wig from the time of Charles I (Staunton, vol. 2, 1796, pp. 310-311).For further information about the album, see comment for 1865,0520.193.
© Copyright
The copyright of the article belongs to the author, please keep the original link for reprinting.
THE END
