IDENTIFIERS ----------- id: 23102 accession number: PD.260-1973 DATE AUDIT ---------- created: Saturday 6 August 2011 updated: Thursday 23 January 2025 DESCRIPTIVE DATA ---------------- object type: This is a Chinese natural history illustration depicting various insects around a flowering plant. The central composition features a green grasshopper perched on a plant stem with broad green leaves and delicate blue flowers. Around this central arrangement are several flying insects: a red dragonfly at the top left, two pale butterflies, and a brown beetle in the upper right. The painting is executed in the style typical of Chinese export natural history art from around the late 18th or early 19th century, with careful attention to both scientific detail and artistic arrangement. The piece demonstrates the Chinese artists' ability to combine accurate natural observation with decorative elements that would appeal to Western collectors and naturalists. Previously described as "study of a spray with blue flowers, with a grasshopper, two butterflies, a dragonfly and another insect". title: drawing LICENSING --------- text license status: CC0 image license status: CC-BY-NC-SA OWNERSHIP --------- instutition: The Fitzwilliam Museum department: Paintings, Drawings and Prints collection: Broughton Collection STABLE URL ---------- url: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/23102 SUBJECTS ------------------- plant plant TECHNIQUES ---------- watercolour and bodycolour on paper watercolour CATEGORIES ------ category: drawing DATING ------ creation date: 1810 - 1810 creation date earliest: 1810 creation date latest: 1810 culture: 19th Century CREATORS -------- maker: Canton workshop