China, Canton. Finely painted, the scene depicting a shepherd boy seated next to a young maiden, his arms draped around her as he holds a flute to her lips, placing his fingers over the holes. The young maiden’s hair tied with a bow, wearing a dress of red, gray, and pink. The woodland setting with tall trees bearing dark green leaves.

Provenance: A private collection in the United Kingdom.
Condition: The painting in excellent condition with minimal wear and flaking only. The frame in very good condition with minor wear, small nicks, chips, and minor losses to the gilding.

Dimensions: Image size 20.2 x 15.5 cm, Size incl. frame 28.8 x 24.5 cm

The present lot is inspired by François Boucher’s painting ‘L'Agréable Leçon’ (The Enjoyable Lesson) which he painted in 1748. Boucher was a French painter who worked in the Rococo style during the 18^th century. His early works celebrate the idyllic and tranquil portrayal of nature and landscape with great elan. However, his art typically forgoes traditional rural innocence to portray scenes with a definitive style of eroticism as his mythological scenes are passionate and intimately amorous rather than traditionally epic. ‘The Enjoyable Lesson’ depicts a flirtatious shepherd and shepherdess in a woodland setting. The scene was based upon characters in a 1745 play by Boucher's close friend Charles-Simon Favart. Boucher's characters in those paintings later inspired a pair of figurines created by the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, c. 1757–66.

The delicate art of reverse-glass painting which was practiced in China for the export market was much admired in the West in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for its unique format and vivid colors. Canton, a great commercial port of the period, was also the center for reverse and mirror-glass painting. The subjects for Chinese reverse paintings ranged from single figures to landscapes to complicated historical and literary scenes as well as native Chinese subjects. The painters themselves are not usually known, and signed examples only began to appear in the nineteenth century.

The process of reverse mirror-glass painting consisted of the artists first tracing the design on the reverse of the mirror plate and removing the mirrored surface to the backing in the areas to be painted. Imported mirror plates were typically used because although Chinese glass production was established in the Forbidden City by Imperial edict in 1696 and foreign craftsmen employed there, the Chinese product was not as thick or desirable as its European counterpart (see G. Child, World Mirrors, London, 1990, p. 362). The method of reverse-glass painting on imported plates was said to have been brought to China by the Jesuit missionary Father Castiglione (1688-1766) who spent most of his life in Peking. Dutch, French and English engravings were imported into China, sometimes within their original frames, and the Chinese artists meticulously copied them in reverse even imitating the black border of the prints as well as their frames.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Bonhams New York, 21 March 2022, lot 155
Price: USD 7,650 or approx. EUR 7,800 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A Chinese reverse glass painting, L’obeissance recompense (Obedience Rewarded)
Expert remark: Compare the related subject, also inspired by an oil painting by François Boucher. Note the size (53.3 x 38 cm).

Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Christie’s Paris, 16 December 2008, lot 423
Price: EUR 8,750 or approx. EUR 11,500 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A Chinese oval European-subject reverse glass painting, circa 1790
Expert remark: Compare the related style and European subject. Note the size (38.7 x 32.4 cm).