Portrait of Christian Graham Painted on Mirror

Place of OriginChina

Dateabout 1785 (Frame about 1820)

DimensionsH: 51 3/16 in. (130 cm); W: 35 1/16 in. (89 cm)

MediumProbably in pernilla oil paint, executed on framed and imported European (probably French) mirror glass. The Chinese frames made of lacquered and gold-painted wood, the British frames of gilded wood embellished with carton-pierre decoration.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

2010.51

Not on View

DescriptionThe mirrors portray the fraternal twins Elizabeth and Christian Graham in half length. Elizabeth is wearing a blue dress and is seated by a round, red-draped table with a basket of flowers, flanked by exotic birds in bamboo and a tree, a watery landscape beyond. The original Chinese frame with a black and gilt-japanned slip depicting Chinamen, buildings and utensils is retained within elaborate Regency frames of gilt wood and carton pierre, embellished with simulated basketwork bolection-molded outer part, the corners with a bearded mask amidst acanthus, the apron and cresting with entwined serpents and hung with bells. The mirrors portray the fraternal twins Elizabeth and Christian Graham in half length. This mirror shows her sister Christian also in a blue dress, seated by a rectangular red-draped table with her elbow resting on a book, against a background with conforming trees and further exotic birds, a watery landscape beyond. The original Chinese frame with a black and gilt-japanned slip depicting Chinamen, buildings and utensils is retained within elaborate Regency frames of gilt wood and carton pierre, embellished with simulated basketwork bolection-molded outer part, the corners with a bearded mask amidst acanthus, the apron and cresting with entwined serpents and hung with bells.

Label TextIn fashionable English country houses—especially those of families involved in the East India trade—furnishings in the “Chinese taste” lent a lighter ambience to drawing rooms, bedrooms and boudoirs. Reverse paintings imported from Canton were often further assimilated into the prevailing oriental style of an interior by setting them into elaborate English Chinoiserie (Chinese-style) frames. Canton, China, the primary point of contact between Chinese and European traders, was the center for reverse painting on glass. It is widely maintained that reverse painting was a Western European technique imported into China by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century. The Jesuit Father Pierre-Martial Cibot (1727–1796) observed a studio of expert reverse painters at the Imperial Court and admired the riskiness, suppleness, and swiftness with which they painted their images on both mirror and ordinary glass in reverse order to the “normal” process of painting. Highlights and shadows are painted in the same plane. As a result, the images appear equally detailed when viewed from the front or the back.Published ReferencesAntique House Furniture and Plenishing, 1922, (Sale of Lennox Castle’s contents).

Christie’s, English Furniture, (sales catalogue), London, King Street, 28 November, 2002, lot 10.

Geyssant, Jeannine, Peintures Sous Verre, Paris, 2008, repr. (col.) p. 171.

Page, Jutta, "Museum Accessions," Antiques, vol.CLXXVIII, no. 3, May/June 2011, repr. (col.) p. 84.

"Jurors' Choice", New Glass Review, 34, 2013, p. 73 repr. (col.) p. 91.

Comparative ReferencesComparanda, frames: See also A related frame embellished with a pediment frame embellished with ‘India” heads, serpents and bells, retaining the original lacquered Chinese frame within, was formerly in the H. J. Joel collection at Childwick Bury, St. Albans, Hertfordshire and sold from Childwick Bury, Christie’s house sale, 15 May 1978, lot 54. See also Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide, “The Reign of Magots and Pagods,” Metropolitan Museum Journal, vol. 37 (2002), pp. 11, 177-197. Comparanda, paintings: See also Jan van Campen, “Uit de Chinese collecti van Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest, Rijksmuseum Jaarverslag (2003), pp. 48-51; and “Chinese bestellingen van Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest,” Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 53/1 (2005), pp. 3-18. See also Margaret Jourdain and R. Soames Jenyns, Chinese Export Art in the Eighteenth Century, 1950, p. 101, fig. 55. See also Paul L. F. van Dongen, Sensitive plates. A Brief History of Painting on Glass. Leiden, 1995. Technique: See also Hirai Tatsuro in: Sasaki Seichi, Wahyono Martowikrido, and Hirai Tatsuro, Indonesia Garasu-e Chosa hokoku, IV, 1989, p. 39. Related History: See also B. R. Tomlinson, “From Campsie to Kedgeree: Scottish Enterprise, Asian Trade and the Company Raj,” Modern Asian Studies 36, 4 (Cambridge University Press: 2002), pp. 769-791.