Enkianthus quinqueflora and Insects
Draughtsman: Canton workshop
This is a Chinese export watercolour depicting Chinese New Year flower (Enkianthus quinqueflora) with insects. The illustration features several branching stems with distinctive drooping, bell-shaped flowers in white with pink stripes. The flowers hang in small clusters from the brown stems. The pink markings radiate from the centre of each bloom, and several brown seed pods are visible at the tips of branches where flowers have finished blooming. The plant displays oval-shaped green leaves arranged along the stems, typical of Enkianthus. The leaves are rendered with careful attention to their natural texture and arrangement. Three insects are depicted around the flowers: a large brown butterfly with striped wing patterns on the left side; a dragonfly with transparent wings and a green-tinted body hovering at the top right; and a bee near the centre. The painting demonstrates the fine brushwork characteristic of Chinese export art from the late 18th or early 19th century, combining traditional Chinese flower-and-bird painting style and Western botanical illustration. Previously described as “flower in bud and in bloom on the stem, surrounded by butterflies and insects”.
Height: 432 mm
Width: 300 mm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1973) by Fairhaven, Henry Rogers Broughton
Chinese
Chinese export art
Chinese export watercolour
Support composed of paper
Watercolour : Bodycolour on paper
Accession number: PD.279-1973
Primary reference Number: 23121
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) "Enkianthus quinqueflora and Insects" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/23121 Accessed: 2025-12-29 06:48:21
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/23121
|title=Enkianthus quinqueflora and Insects
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-29 06:48:21|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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