Watering Tea Plants

This painting is from an album that contains 28 pictures showing Chinese men and women in different costumes. The Chinese caption explains that the man is watering a tea plant. The first owner of the album has made his own annotation in pencil.

In the late 18th century Europeans were fascinated by Chinese dresses and hairstyles, which were markedly different from their own, and paintings similar to this were produced to satisfy their curiosity. It was made in Canton (Guangzhou) in southern China. In the 18th century the city became the principal, and later the only, trading port at which Europeans were permitted to buy Chinese goods.