Picturing the flora of China

Abstract

Abstract This paper traces the provenance of some 2,400 plant paintings obtained by early British commercial travellers to Xiamen 廈門, long pre-dating the later ‘export trade’ in Chinese botanical art. Nine principal sets of paintings form five ‘assemblages’ across the British Library and Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Upperville, Virginia. Each painting, in one of two styles, depicts a single plant labelled with its Chinese name. The first style (‘boneless’) either deploys limited outlines to denote form or lacks outlines altogether, and incorporates resemblances to traditions of bencao 本草 (materia medica) illustration and huaniaohua 花鳥畫 (flower-and-bird) painting. The second uses prominent inked outlines and more firmly resembles bencao illustrations. Two merchants, James Cuninghame and Christopher Brewster, are identified as purchasers of some paintings, and their acquisitions entered the metropolitan collections of James Petiver and Sir Hans Sloane. A single Chinese actor, ‘Dr Bun-ko’, is named in an annotation on 309 ‘Bunko–Brewster Paintings’ which have newly been shown to encompass holdings at the British Library and Oak Spring.