Perspective Print Depicting Wan-Nian Qiao Bridge in Suzhou

Catalog note / 解説

European Jesuit artists working at the Chinese imperial court in the 17th and 18th centuries played an important role in introducing western painting styles to China. Interest in European perspective techniques spread to Suzhou in eastern China, a centre for the production of woodblock prints to celebrate New Year. Images such as this, of Suzhou’s Wan-Nian Qiao Bridge, were widely seen and brought western pictorial conventions to a large and varied audience. These perspective prints were made to be viewed through an optical device such as a peepbox incorporating a mirror. For this reason, the prints like this are printed in reverse and the inscriptions appear in back front. When a viewer lo…