Rose with Butterflies and Dragonflies
Draughtsman: Canton workshop
This is a Chinese export watercolour depicting a pink rose with butterflies and insects. The illustration features a fully opened pink rose bloom with many layered petals arranged in the rounded form. The petals are rendered in varying shades of pink, darker at the edges and lighter toward the center, with visible yellow stamens at the heart of the bloom. Several green round buds are visible to the right of the main flower. The plant displays the deeply lobed compound leaves, arranged around both the flower and the buds. Some leaves show slight yellowing or spotting, adding naturalistic detail. Four insects are depicted in flight around the flower: a large black swallow tail butterfly with white and red spots on the wing edges in the upper right; a yellow and blue butterfly with black borders in the upper left; and two small dragonflies in the upper right and far right. 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 “stem with flowers in bud and bloom, surrounded by butterflies and insects”.
Height: 337 mm
Width: 440 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.281-1973
Primary reference Number: 23124
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 (2026) "Rose with Butterflies and Dragonflies" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/23124 Accessed: 2026-02-17 02:18:13
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/23124
|title=Rose with Butterflies and Dragonflies
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2026-02-17 02:18:13|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-23124
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