Roberta Wue - Art Worlds: Artists, Images, and Audiences in Late Nineteenth-Century Shanghai

The growth of Shanghai in the late nineteenth century gave rise to an exciting new art world in which a flourishing market in popular art became a highly visible part of the treaty ports commercialized culture. Art Worlds examines the relationship between the citys visual artists and their urban audiences. Through a discussion of images ranging from fashionable painted fans to lithograph-illustrated magazines, the book explores how popular art intersected with broader cultural trends. It also investigates the multiple roles played by the modern Chinese artist as image-maker, entrepreneur, celebrity, and urban sojourner. Focusing on industrially produced images, mass advertisements, and other hitherto neglected sources, the book offers a new interpretation of late Qing visual culture at a watershed moment in the history of modern Chinese art.

Art Worlds will be of interest to scholars of art history and to anyone with an interest in the cultural history of modern China.

Roberta Wue is an associate professor in the Department of Art History at the University of California, Irvine. She is the co-author of Picturing Hong Kong: Photography 18551910 (Asia Society, 1997).

By focusing on objects, sites, social networks, and technologies, this elegantly conceived book enriches our understanding of art production and consumption in nineteenth-century Shanghai. The author makes masterful use of newspapers, guidebooks, diaries, and advertisementsas well as paintingsto present readers with the compelling story of a city and its artists.

Tobie Meyer-Fong, author of What Remains: Coming to Terms with Civil War in 19th Century China and Building Culture in Early Qing Yangzhou

Rich in findings, forensic in visual analysis andnot leastelegantly crafted, Wues book on painting, printing and the social worlds of art in late-Qing Shanghai is an exemplary contribution. A must-read volume.

Shane McCausland, author of Zhao Mengfu: Calligraphy and Painting for Khubilais China

Art Worlds

Art Worlds

Artists, Images, and Audiences in Late Nineteenth-Century Shanghai

Roberta Wue

This publication is made possible in part by a publication subsidy from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange in Taipei.

For print distribution in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand:

Hong Kong University Press

The University of Hong Kong

Pokfulam Road

Hong Kong

www.hkupress.org

ISBN 978-988-8208-46-3 (Hardback)

For print distribution outside Asia, Australia, and New Zealand:

University of Hawaii Press

2840 Kolowalu Street

Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 USA

www.uhpress.hawaii.edu

ISBN 978-0-8248-5138-5 (Hardback)

For eBook distribution worldwide:

Hong Kong University Press

ISBN 978-988-8313-44-0 (eBook)

2014 Hong Kong University Press

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Cover image: Ren Bonian, No Fragrant Flavors (Portrait of Dadian), 1889, hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, 120.5 x 55.5 cm, National Art Museum of China, Beijing

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wue, Roberta, author.

Art worlds : artists, images, and audiences in late nineteenth-century Shanghai / Roberta Wue.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8248-5138-5 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. Commercial artChinaShanghai19th century. 2. ArtistsChinaShanghaiHistory19th century. 3. Painting, ChineseChinaShanghai19th century. 4. Art and popular cultureChinaShanghaiHistory19th century. I. Title.

NC998.6.C62S539 2014

709.51'13209034dc23

2014035786

First printing 2014

First eBook 2014

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Figures

Ren Bonian, Picture of Three Friends, 1884, hanging scroll, ink and color on paper

Jin Gui, Announcing the Newly Opened Jiuhuatang Letter-paper and Fan Shop, lithograph advertisement, Dianshizhai huabao [Dianshizhai pictorial], 1888

Ren Bonian, Bulbul and Peach Blossoms, c. 1870s, folding fan, ink and color on gold paper

Zhang Xiong, Autumn Flowers, 1850, folding fan, ink and color on gold paper

Zhu Cheng, Peach Blossoms and Birds, c. 1870s, hanging scroll, ink and color on paper

Zhu Cheng, Swallow and Pear Blossoms, 1870, folding fan, ink and color on gold paper

Hu Gongshou, Bamboo and Rock, 1878, folding fan, ink and color on paper

Qian Huian, Listening to the Oriole, 1882, folding fan, ink and color on paper

Pl. XXV: ventails, from Simon Kiong, Quelques mots sur la politesse chinoise, 1906

Anonymous, Men in Garden, c. 1880s, photograph

Ren Bonian, Escaping the Summer Heat in the Shade of Banana Palms (Portrait of Zhang Xiong), 1872

Pl. XV: Habits de crmonie dun mandarin, from Simon Kiong, Quelques mots sur la politesse chinoise, 1906

Jin Shanxiang, A Monk Hires a Prostitute, lithograph illustration, Dianshizhai huabao, 1884

He Mingfu, An Aggressive Driver, lithograph illustration, Dianshizhai huabao, 1891?

Ren Bonian, Lotus and Mandarin Ducks, 1879, screen fan, ink and color on silk

Ren Bonian, Su Wu Herding Sheep, from Ren Bonian huaji, Shanghai, 1887, woodblock print

Ren Bonian, Hermit, from Ren Bonian huaji, Shanghai, 1887, woodblock print

Ren Bonian, Butterfly and Plants, from Ren Bonian huaji, Shanghai, 1887, woodblock print

Anonymous, Shanghais Xihongtang Letter-paper and Fan Shop, lithograph advertisement, Dianshizhai huabao, 1884

Anonymous, Hunger and Cold Force Them to Hang Themselves from Rafters and Throw Themselves in Rivers, from Pictures Reporting the Disaster in the Four Provinces, Shanghai, 1881, woodblock printed pamphlet

Wu Youru, The Shenbao Offices, from Wu Youru, Illustrations of Famous Sights of Shanghai, 1884

Ren Bonian, Portrait of Mr. Renzhaiat Age 58, woodblock, preface portrait from Renzhai huasheng [Renzhais painting legacy], 1876

Hu Gongshou, preface from Renzhai huasheng, woodblock, 1876

Chen Yunsheng, Landscape with Woodcutter, woodblock, from Renzhai huasheng, 1876

Chen Yunsheng, Scholars, woodblock, from Renzhai huasheng, 1876

Chen Yunsheng, Mixed Gathering, woodblock, from Renzhai huasheng, 1876

Chen Yunsheng, Scholar and Books, woodblock, from Renzhai huasheng, 1876

Chen Yunsheng, Books, woodblock, from Renzhai huasheng, 1876

Chen Yunsheng, Books, woodblock, from Renzhai huasheng, 1876

Chen Yunsheng, Landscape, woodblock, from Renzhai huasheng, 1876

Chen Yunsheng, Landscape with Pavilion, woodblock, from Renzhai huasheng