| Maker(s): | Bellin, Jacques Nicolas
| | Culture: | French (1703-1772)
| | Title: | print: Vue de Quang-Cheu-Fu ou Canton
| | Date Made: | 1757
| | Type: | Print
| | Materials: | laid paper, ink, watercolors
| | Place Made: | France; Paris
| | Measurements: | overall: 7 3/8 x 10 3/4 in.; 18.7325 x 27.305 cm
| | Accession Number: | HD 2003.6
| | Credit Line: | Hall and Kate Peterson Fund for Paintings, Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
| | Museum Collection: | Historic Deerfield
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Description:
Hand-colored (later) print titled "Vue de Quang-Cheu-Fu ou Canton." or 'The View of Guangzhou or Canton' in a banner across the top of the print, and "T.V.No. IV." (Tome or Book 5, No. 4) in lower right corner, by Bellin and taken from a 1757 French edition of Antoine-Francois Prevost's (1697-1793) 20 volume "L'Histoire Generale des Voyages." The image is after "An Embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces to the Grand Tatar Cham, Emperor off China" by Johannes Nieuhof (1618-1672), which is his account of the Dutch East India Company 1655-1657 trip to China, printed in Amsterdam in 1665, and London in 1669 and 1673 in English. From "Views of the Pearl River Delta": "The dramatic view places Dutch ships in the most prominent position, as if to stress their importance and their greater familiarity to the artist, and may possibly represent the Dutch ambassador's ship "Roukerken". In the distance the seemingly impenetrable city is surrounded by its crenelated wall with only three landmarks easily visible: The Mohammedan Tower, the Flowery Pagoda, and, in the distant hills, the Five Story Watchtower. These three architectural wonders would become forever the visual references which would define views of Canton..... The city gate forms the central focus for the scene as it was through these gates that all Westerners would pass to conduct trade; and it would be here, later in the following century, that the Western-style hongs were built when Canton was designated as the trading center of Westerners. To the right, in an area known as Jackass Point, outside the walls of the city, close to the water, are the small buildings which may have been used initially as Factories, described by Peter Osbeck in 1751 as '..a general denomination of the houses built towards the river, or over it upon piles, and which are let by the Chinese to the Europeans during their stay'." The print has a full plate mark, and a frayed edge on the left side from removal from a book.
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