Custodian: University of Glasgow Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery

Reference: GLAHA 9252

The Hunterian Art Gallery hold a set of prints depicting the conquests of the Emperor Qianlong (1736-1796, an important set of sixteen prints showing early European contact with China.This series is a remarkable example of fusion between European and Asiatic aesthetic. Complete sets are very rare.

After seeing the battle prints by the German painter Rugendas (1666-1742), the emperor Qianlong decided to celebrate his own victories through prints, and asked the missionary painters working in Pekin, Castoglione, Attiret, Damascene and Sickelpart, to prepare drawings celebrating his military campaign in Upper Asia from 1755 to 1759. The 16 drawings were then sent to France, where they arrived in 1766, and were engraved under the supervision of Charles-Nicolas Cochin.