IDENTIFIERS ----------- id: 23124 accession number: PD.281-1973 DATE AUDIT ---------- created: Saturday 6 August 2011 updated: Thursday 28 August 2025 DESCRIPTIVE DATA ---------------- object type: 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”. title: drawing LICENSING --------- text license status: CC0 image license status: CC-BY-NC-SA OWNERSHIP --------- instutition: The Fitzwilliam Museum department: Paintings, Drawings and Prints collection: Broughton Collection STABLE URL ---------- url: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/23124 SUBJECTS ------------------- plant plant TECHNIQUES ---------- bodycolour on paper watercolour CATEGORIES ------ category: drawing DATING ------ culture: 19th Century CREATORS -------- maker: Canton workshop DIMENSIONS ---------- dimension: Height units: mm value: 337 dimension: Width units: mm value: 440