清乾隆　御題棉花圖玉冊頁|Album of Illustrated Cotton Production and poems composed by the Qianlong Emperor

Unknown

late 18th century · Jade (nephrite) · Asian Art

In 1765, Fang Guancheng (1698–1768), viceroy of Zhili (present-day Hebei province), presented the Qianlong Emperor with a set of sixteen paintings of cotton production. Recognizing the series as an important achievement of local agriculture, the emperor composed poems for each of the paintings. The images and poems became designs for imperial works of art in various media, including jade, porcelain, and ink cake. This jade album is a concise version that combines the original sixteen paintings into ten pages.

Artist

Unknown

Date

late 18th century

Medium

Jade (nephrite)

Culture

China

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Gift of Florence and Herbert Irving, 2015