Glocalizing Macao:On Macao Trade Paintings (18th - 19th centuries)

Résumé

This paper analyzes the paintings depicting Macao and that date from the late 18^th century to the mid-19^th century. In so doing, a new case study termed ‘Macao Trade Paintings’ is established. Understanding this artistic production requires a research strategy that integrates data and methodological tools from across a wide range of disciplines, including literature, sociology, and economic history. Macao Trade Paintings, a designation that was inspired by the term China Trade Paintings, emerged from commissions originally from Western (curiously, mostly non-Portuguese) patrons, followed by requests from Chinese and other Asian clients. These works were produced both by Western and Chinese painters in Macao, in Canton, and in other South China locations, as well as in Europe and in America. This mixed patronage, the blending of local techniques with Western techniques and materials, and the subjects reflecting the Portuguese administration of Macao, the presence of Westerners, and the broader Chinese context, all contribute to their particular transcultural character. This peripheral, small-scale production, from a contact zone, soon entered international art circuits and correspondingly serves as a specific case study within the field of global arts as these paintings have been publicly displayed, collected privately and publicly, and put up for sale at major auction houses ever since the 18^th century.