Art as Commodity in 19th and 20th Century China
The paintings in this group appear to be trade goods, export art, from the turn of the century China. The central figures - deities - are somewhat recognizable without close inspection. However, after a detailed viewing many of the iconographic details are incorrect. Some of these paintings are duplicates with the copies showing minor changes and differences while others are clearly made from tracings with some of the the tracing originals mistakenly reversed (duplicates: example 1, example 2. Reversed examples: Yama Dharmaraja, White Tara). A number of museums in North America have paintings such as these but they are rarely if ever displayed making the presentaion of these images a rare opportunity to study the phenomena of Himalayan art turning into a factory produced trade good.
The paintings in this set are both interesting for the study of Himalayan and Tibetan style art becoming a commodity in 19th century China and also because these particular examples have a very clear provenance as of 1908-09 when they were collected in China by Berthold Laufer for The Field Museum of Chicago.