Rare Painting, ink and polychromy on paper,

Set in a sketched landscape, an oversized Dutch figure in an 18^th century costume and headdress, smoking a pipe, is accompanied by his tiny Javanese servant, presenting him with a flute of champagne; the former seems to dominate a mischievous-looking Chinese official , concealing children behind his back; despite the Dutchman’s gigantic size, one wonders who will emerge victorious from this diplomatic and cultural challenge.

Representations of the Portuguese in the 16th century, then of the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries, are more often found in Japanese art and much more rarely in Chinese art, ( screens, paintings, porcelain, netsukes and so on).

It’s quite unusual to find a Dutchman confronting a Chinese man in Asian works of art; it’s a very rare iconography.

Bibliography :” Encounters, The Meeting Of Asia And Europe 1500-1800”