Portrayals of Qing Battles

Two Famous Chinese Paintings Orphaned during the Tumultuous 20th Century

Authors

  • Michaela PEJČOCHOVÁ Charles University, Prague, Czechia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2025.13.1.249-261

Keywords:

Chinese painting, imperial battles, collecting Chinese art, loss and looting of artwork

Abstract

The collection of the National Gallery in Prague includes two depictions of Qing dynasty battles during the Nian rebellion (1851–1868). These paintings have been studied by researchers, but the complex historical background of their acquisition and movement among Western collections was never clarified. Also, the sad process of how the paintings became orphaned from the matching inscriptions, which were still with them in the mid-20th century, has not been described before. After making new discoveries in the archives of institutions and individual collectors in the Czech Republic and Germany, this article discusses in detail the movements of the paintings among collections and their place in the collecting discourse throughout the 20th century. Their biography is a vital testimony to the complex processes of looting, appropriation, confiscation, damage and rediscovery, which affected numerous artworks and their collections in the tumultuous period of the last century.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Archival Sources

Náprstek Museum [National Museum in Prague] Archives. Joe Hloucha, file with photographs.

Völkerkundemuseum Archives, Berlin. Acquisition Book China, 1903.

Völkerkundemuseum, Berlin. Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Müller, file no. IB037, Asien.

*****

References

Bügener, Annette. 2015. Die Heldengalerie des Qianlong-Kaisers. Ein Beitrag zur chinesischen Porträtmalerei im 18. Jahrhundert. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

Butz, Herbert, ed. 2003. Bilder für die “Halle des Purpurglanzes”. Chinesische Offiziersporträts und Schlachtenkupfer der Ära Qianlong (1736–1795). Berlin: Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst.

Depicting Glory. n.d. “Unit Two: Depicting Victory.” Accessed July 3, 2024. www.storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/778d68551baf4818a429b04dce1f46fb.

Hloucha, Joe. 1929-1930. Výstava mimoevropského umění a uměleckého průmyslu. Veletržní palác v Praze VII. Listopad 1929 – únor 1930 (Exhibition of non-European art and art industries. Trade Fair Palace in Prague VII. November 1929 – February 1930). Prague.

Kraemerová, Alice, and Jan Šejbl. 2007. Japonsko, má láska. Český cestovatel a sběratel Joe Hloucha (Japan, My Love. Czech Traveller and Collector Joe Hloucha). Prague: National Museum.

Lavaulx-Vrécourt, Henriette, and Niklas Leverenz, eds. 2021. Berliner Schlachtenkupfer. 34 Druckplatten der Kaiser von China / Berlin Battle Engravings. 34 Copperplates for the Emperors of China. Berlin: De Gruyter.

Leverenz, Niklas. 2018. “From Berlin to Beijing. F.W.K. Müller and the Acquisition of Chinese Art in 1901.” Monumenta Serica: Journal of Oriental Studies 66 (2): 465–506.

Leverenz, Niklas. 2020. “The Looting of the Winter Palace in Peking.” Journal for Art Market Studies 2: 1–13.

Pejčochová, Michaela. 2019. Emissary from the Far East. Vojtěch Chytil and the Collecting of Modern Chinese Painting in Interwar Czechoslovakia. Prague: National Gallery in Prague.

Pejčochová, Michaela. 2021. Sto let jednoho stromu. Lubor Hájek a institucionální sběratelství asij­ského umění v Československu (One Hundred Years of a Single Tree. Lubor Hájek and Institutional Collecting of Asian Art in Czechoslovakia). Brno: Books & Pipes.

Pirazzoli-T’Serstevens, Michèle. 1969. Gravures des conquêtes de l’empereur de Chine K’ien-long au Musée Guimet. Paris: Musée Guimet.

Zhang, Hongxing. 2000. “Studies in Late Qing Battle Paintings.” Artibus Asiae 2: 265–96.

Zhang, Hongxing. 2023a. “Investigating the Date, Maker, and Use of a Set of Photographic Albums of Late Qing Battle Paintings.” Orientations 54 (5): 2–10.

Zhang, Hongxing. 2023b. “Qingkuan: Court Painter and Qing Loyalist.” In Creators of Modern China: 100 Lives from Empire to Republic, edited by Jessica Harrison-Hall, and Julia Lovell, 154–57. London: Thames and Hudson.

Downloads

Published

15. 01. 2025

How to Cite

Pejčochová, Michaela. 2025. “Portrayals of Qing Battles: Two Famous Chinese Paintings Orphaned During the Tumultuous 20th Century”. Asian Studies 13 (1): 249-61. https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2025.13.1.249-261.