Despite their best intentions, European missionaries to China became known more for their skills in art and science than for the Christian messages they were sent out to preach. Along with clocks and western style music, European oil painting techniques were introduced to China by European missionaries.

Emperor Yongzheng in business suit

Some of them were such skilled oil painters that their skills were admired and accepted by the Chinese elite. Using a combination of western style oil painting and traditional Chinese techniques to suit the local aesthetic, foreign painters began to work in the Imperial Court. Italian artist Giuseppe Castiglione was the most famous western painter in China during this period.

Giuseppe Castiglione: The Mix Master

In 1714, a trading ship stopped in Guangzhou with seven foreign missionaries on board. The local government officials immediately reported them to Emperor Kangxi, who s demanded to know whether they had scientific knowledge or were simply religious preachers. He ordered the missionaries who found to also be science experts to come to the capital and sent the others back.. Among the missionaries who were allowed to stay was Giuseppe Castiglione.

Castiglione went to Beijing where Emperor Kangxi invited him to the palace. The emperor was impressed by his painting talent and ordered him to study traditional Chinese painting. For the next fifty years, Castiglione was an imperial artist, witnessing the comings and goings of three emperors - Kangxi, Yongzheng (1678-1735) and Qianlong (1711-1799).

Castiglione adjusted his oil painting style to suit the emperors' tastes and traditional Chinese aesthetics by using Chinese rice paper, thin silk, ink and brush pens.

But Castiglione wasn't free to draw whatever he wished. Instead the emperor gave him assignments and required him to submit drafts of his next work for approval before beginning to paint. Only when the emperor approved of his draftcould the artist's begin to paint. Castiglione's subject matter was mainly the emperors' political achievements. His unique combination of western and eastern painting styles was the only way he could survive the whims of the imperial court.

Despite their best intentions European missionaries to China became known more for their skills in art and science than for the Christian messages they were sent out to preach. Along with clocks and western style music, European oil painting techniques were introduced to China by the European missionaries.

Some of them were such skilled oil painters that their skills were admired and accepted by the Chinese elite. Using a combination of western style oil painting and traditional Chinese techniques to suit the local aesthetic, foreign painters began to work in the Imperial Court.. Italian artist Giuseppe Castiglione was the most famous western painter during this period.

European Artistic Techniques Brought To China

Chinese artists learned about western oil painting techniques through missionaries, and in the sixteenth century they sent paintings made by western artists in China to Europe where they were made into drypoint prints. Drypoint is a kind of intaglio printing technique, using designs etched onto metal or stone with a needle. The burr created by the needle gives a rich, velvety effect to the prints. Masters of this technique include Dürer, Rembrandt and Picasso.

The paintings sent to Europe depicted border insurgency wars between 1755 and 1767 under Emperor Qianlong. The 16 pictures were shipped to France and reproduced by seven well-known etchers. It took seven years for the artists to complete the etchings. In 1773, 200 drypoint paintings along with the original drawings and drypoint versions were sent back to China. Emperor Qianlong was pleased with these artworks.

Qing Dynasty Concubines Seen Through Western Artists' Eyes

01. Huixian, Imperial Noble Concubine of Emperor Qianlong

02. Wan Pin, concubine of Emperor Qianlong

03. Emperess Xiaoxian of Qianlong

04. Emperess Xiaohe of Jiaqing, Qianlong's son

Western imperial painters made many portraits of emperors and their concubines. Their paintings differed from traditional Chinese figure painting, with greater attention to anatomic detail and use of light. Traditional Chinese painting shows subjects in only one light. The pictures here show how the Qing Dynasty concubines appeared in the eyes of the western imperial painters.

Oil and Water Colors' Mix

Tongyin Maids of Honor

Traditional Chinese painters were much influenced by the western imperial artists and some learned the techniques of western oil painting from them. The unknown painter of Tongyin Maids of Honor was one of the first Chinese artists to work in the western style, developing a tradition that flourished until the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the eighteenth century.