A Study Of The Influence Of Chinese Export Paintings On Sino-Russian Artistic Exchanges In The 18th And 19th Centuries

The current paper researches 18^th-19^th cc.Chinese export painting as a unique art phenomenon from five main aspects:the emergence of Chinese export painting during the Qing dynasty,the artistic features of Chinese export painting from the Southern region of China,the development of Chinese export painting collections in Russia,the artistic features of Beijing export painting based on materials stored in Russian collections,as well as special contribution of Chinese export painting in Russian-Chinese art exchange.Chinese export painting first appeared in Guangdong in the early 18^th c.,in the 19^th c.it appeared in Beijing.The export painting includes oil painting,gouache and watercolor painting,glass painting etc.These works of art combine European and Chinese painting techniques.They depict the life and customs of China,as well as exotic plants and animals of this country.The rapid development of trade between China and the West had put the basis for the development of export painting.It had also originated from the activities of Christian missionaries in China.Jesuits were the first to arrive in China.In the 18^th century,Russia established the Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing.Missionaries brought European books and Western works of art to China,including paintings and etchings.In the 17^th–18^thcc.,the Jesuit artists appeared in the Qing court,among them Giovanni Gherardini,Giuseppe Castiglione,Matteo Ripa etc.As for the activities of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission,in addition to missionary work in China,the missionaries had to carry out a comprehensive study of China.In this case,the most important representatives of the mission were N.Ya.Bichurin and Z.F.Leontievsky.In addition to compiling the written works about Chinese history and culture,they brought to Russia a large number of illustrative materials,mainly produced by Chinese artists.Those drawings not only had supplemented the written research,but also had become an important source of information about China in the 19^th c.Later,regular trade between Russia and China had increased the interest of the Russian aristocracy in China.Those contacts had left a definite mark on the Russian art,Chinese themes gradually had begun to appear in the Russian art.Paintings brought from Beijing included images of Chinese landscapes,peoples of China,their customs.These collections of Beijing export painting had greatly enriched the Russian society's knowledge of China.Soon thereafter,by decree of the Russian emperor it was decided that professional artists should enter the Ecclesiastical Mission.Thus,from the 11^th Mission in Beijing,there had appeared professional artists:A.M.Legashov,K.I.Korsalin,I.I.Chmutov,L.S.Igorev.Their duties included making paintings and drawings that would have reflected the reality of life in China in the 19^th c.Thanks to the works of the Mission's artists,nowadays the researchers have an opportunity to understand life in China during that period,that is shown from a perspective of a Russian artist.These works had appeared due to the works of export painting stored in Russian collections.At the turn of the century,the realistic images of China in the export paintings indirectly had influenced the formation of new trends in the Russian avant-garde art.N.S.Goncharova,I.I.Mashkov and other artists were looking for new artistic expressions.At that time,the transition from the exoticism of Chinese style and the ethnographic display of export paintings to the symbolic depth of artistic images had been conveyed through the simplified forms of folk art.Thus,at the beginning of the 20^th c.,artists experienced a deep interaction between Russian and Chinese art on an artistic,cultural and metaphysical level.This research highlights two main points:first,to study the spread and influence of Chinese export paintings in the 18^th-19^th cc.through historical documents and artistic works;second,to pay attention to the artistic communication between China and Russia through export painting.These two points focus on the comparative study of Chinese and foreign art so as to reveal the evolution of Sino-Russian art exchange history.