Guan: Chinese family of painters. It is possible that other members of the family also painted under the title of ‘Lamqua’. Tingqua’s landscapes (e.g.
This page is dedicated to the memory of Kwan Wai Nung (1880-1956), renowned as the "King of Calendar Poster", and the long line of great Kwan family artists before and after him. Based in Guangzhou (Canton) in the late 18th century and the 19th, they are best known for their production of Western-style paintings created for the export market. (1) Guan Zuolin, known by his Western name, Spoilum, wa
s the first identifiable artist of the Cantonese export school (see also CHINA, §I, 4(ii)(c)). He was probably the father, uncle or grandfather of (2) Guan Qiaochang, known as Lamqua (Lamqua (i)), and Lamqua’s younger brother, (3) Guan Lianchang, known as Tingqua. (4) Guan Shicun, also known as Lamqua (Lamqua (ii)), may have been the son or nephew of (2) Lamqua (i), although the relationship is not certain. All four artists painted portraits using Western techniques, and all except the younger Lamqua were known for their landscapes and views of Guangzhou. (1) Spoilum [Guan Zuolin; Kuan Tso-lin; Spilem; Spillem]
(b Nanhai, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province; fl 1770–1810). According to a gazetteer of the district (Nanhai xian zhi, 1910 edn, juan 21, p. 8a), he travelled in Europe and America, where he was impressed by the realism of Western oil painting; his travels no doubt explain the similarities of his style to that of contemporary North American portrait painters. On his return to Guangzhou, he opened a studio, which probably grew into a family business maintained in the second and third generations by (2) Lamqua (i) and (4) Lamqua (ii). Part of the Guan family
(3) Tingqua [Guan Lianchang; Kuan Lien-ch’ang; Tinqua]
(b c. 1809; fl 1840–70). Brother of (2) Lamqua (i) and probably a close relation of (1) Spoilum. Tingqua’s studio at 16 China Street, Guangzhou, was perhaps the most prolific source of Chinese export paintings of its time. Working in a manner influenced by Western artistic traditions, Tingqua and the painters of his studio restricted themselves to gouache and watercolours, perhaps to avoid rivalry with Lamqua’s oil paintings. Their pictures, which were often sold in sets, represent manufacturing processes (of tea, cotton etc.), deities, ceremonies, gardens, boats, decorative objects and specimens of natural history, as well as views of Guangzhou, the Pearl River at Huangbu (Whampoa), Macao and Shanghai. Houqua’s Garden, gouache, 267*349 mm; Salem, MA, Peabody Mus.) are generally sunlit, with little gradation of shadowing. Characteristic mannerisms are trees represented with thick clusters of yellow-green leaves and seas denoted by regular parallel lines, sometimes with ripples in the foreground. Tingqua and his studio also redrew works brought in to them. The substantial collection of Tingqua pictures (c. 1855) brought back by the American China trader Augustine Heard (Salem, MA, Peabody Mus.) includes Tingqua’s version of a country-house view by an American amateur artist and a series of watercolours depicting Filipino men and women, based on originals by the Filipino artist Justiniano Asunción (see Crossman, 1991, pls 93–5). Part of the Guan family
(4) Lamqua (ii) [Guan Shicun; Kuan Shih-ts’un]
( fl c. 1840–70). Probably the son or nephew of (2) Lamqua (i). He was identified by the Chinese inscriptions on the stretchers of two portraits (1864; Brighton, A.G. & Mus.; see 1986 exh. cat., p. 56). Of these, perhaps only the male portrait, Hexing of Hong Kong (785*620 mm), can be regarded as his work. The female figure (841*660 mm) was reproduced in several other very similar versions, and in this instance she was allocated a false identity—the Fourth Concubine of Hexing of Hong Kong—in order to satisfy Western demand for paired portraits representing husband and wife.
