Artwork Page for Family Gathering on New Year's Morning

Details / Information for Family Gathering on New Year's Morning

Family Gathering on New Year's Morning

緙絲毛掛毯：歲朝圖

late 1760s

China, Qing dynasty

(1644-1911)
Medium
Silk and wool: tapestry weave
Measurements
Overall: 257.8 x 377.8 cm (101 1/2 x 148 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of John L. Severance 1942.825
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Description

This European-style tapestry depicts a family gathering, in a woven Western picture frame, that presumably once furnished the Hall of Cultivating the Mind (Yangxin dian) in the Forbidden City. The tapestry employs Western perspective and shading combined with the traditional Chinese subject of a family gathering in a palace, including motifs expressing wishes for good fortune and for a peaceful reign.

In 1766, six French tapestries had been presented to the Chinese court. The Qianlong emperor was so intrigued that he commissioned tapestries in the French style from Suzhou. Records mention an imperial order for tapestries in the Western style, such as this one, in 1769, 1770, and 1775.
Rectangular tapestry in muted browns and blues depicting people with light skin tones wearing light-colored, floor-length robes gathered in an interior. Adults cluster at the back of the room with two dark-blue robed, bearded men sitting at a central circular table among children. More children gather around a table to the left and clusters of children hold instruments or plants, standing across the plain, grey-brown floor of the lower half.

Family Gathering on New Year's Morning

late 1760s

China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)

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