ANGLO-CHINESE SCHOOL ATTRIBUTED TO TINGQUA (GUAN LIANCHANG) C.1830-1870 Oil on canvas

ANGLO-CHINESE SCHOOL ATTRIBUTED TO TINGQUA (GUAN LIANCHANG)

C.1830-1870

Oil on canvas, with two ladies and their young attendant with an opium pipe in a spacious interior opening to a garden with an elaborate rockery, the reverse inscribed Tingqua but now relined, framed, 46cm x 59.7cm.

Guan Lianchang (known to foreigners as Tingqua) was one of the most important and prolific Chinese watercolour painters. His studio at 16 China Street, Canton, offered gouache and watercolour paintings depicting Chinese views and portraits. Tingqua's brother Lamqua was once the protégé of the English painter George Chinnery (1774-1852) and specialised in Western-style oil paintings.

Cf. C L Crossman, The China Trade, Paintings, furnishings and exotic curiosities, pp.98-100 for more information on Tingqua and Lamqua and p.186 where a view of Tingqua's studio is illustrated.