Branch with flowers and two partridges on the ground
Draughtsman: Canton workshop
This is a Chinese export watercolour depicting two quails in a garden landscape setting. The two quails have brown speckled plumage and black and white head markings. The birds are placed They are positioned around a scholar's rock. A flowering branch hovers above the birds and rock. It has both white peonies and pink flowers on the same branch, making it a decorative background rather than realistic illustration. Above them extends a flowering branch with both white blossoms and coral-pink flowers, possibly representing a combination of camellia or plum blossoms. The foliage is rendered in various shades of green, and the background shows a subtle wash of blue sky fading to cream. The painting is executed in the style typical of Chinese export art from around the late 18th or early 19th century, combining traditional Chinese brushwork techniques with Western-influenced naturalistic detail. The artist has achieved a careful balance between decorative beauty and scientific accuracy in depicting the birds and botanical elements.
Height: 408 mm
Width: 578 mm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1973) by Fairhaven, Henry Rogers Broughton
19th Century
Production date:
circa
AD 1830
Support composed of paper
Watercolour : Watercolour and bodycolour on paper
Accession number: PD.263-1973
Primary reference Number: 23105
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Paintings, Drawings and Prints
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Branch with flowers and two partridges on the ground" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/23105 Accessed: 2025-04-20 05:45:36
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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/23105
|title=Branch with flowers and two partridges on the ground
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-04-20 05:45:36|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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