Exposition de peintures chinoises anciennes : catalogue sommaire
A 1912 Paris exhibition catalogue, issued by the Musée Cernuschi, that lists early Chinese paintings in plain halftone reproductions, one plate per page. The pictures are monochrome reproductions of silk and paper scrolls, showing animals, figures and trees in ink-wash tones with generous margins. A designer could take from them the restrained tonal range, the sparse compositions of single figures or pairs set against empty ground, and the way small vertical scroll formats sit on a blank page.
