After the Treaty of Nanjing, the Qing Dynasty opened its ports to trade, and Guangzhou became one of the export centers for Chinese-style Western paintings.
The following images are a series of watercolors from Guangzhou’s export paintings, depicting the Chinese tea industry. From the cultivation and irrigation of tea plants to harvesting, drying, packaging, and transportation, these paintings illustrate the process, resembling a Western-style “Treatise on the Works of Nature: Tea Chapter.”
The paintings date back to approximately 1850 and are signed by Tinqua (廷呱). Tinqua was the name of a painting studio operated by Guan Tinggao (Guan Lianchang) in Guangzhou, which was very active from the 1840s to the 1870s. Many export painting studios in Guangzhou at that time used “Qua” in their names, such as Lam Qua and Luc Qua.
These export Western-style paintings are rarely mentioned in the history of Chinese painting, yet they are a testament to the cultural exchange between China and the West.


