An introduction to the history of Chinese pictorial art
A 1918 London survey of Chinese painting history by the sinologist Herbert Allen Giles, published by B. Quaritch and held by the Smithsonian Libraries, written for readers of art history. The plates are halftone reproductions of Chinese ink and colour paintings, mostly on silk or wall, shown as grey monochrome images. A designer might take from them the loose brushwork of a standing figure with a fan, the pale blossoming branch against a muted ground, and the crowded layered composition of a painted wall with figures in ornate robes.
