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Lam Qua

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Lam Qua (1801 - 1860) was active/lived in China.  Lam Qua is known for Western style portrait painting.

Biography photo for Lam Qua
 "Peter Parker's Lam Qua Paintings Collection,"

Peter Parker, medical missionary and diplomat to China, was born in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1804. His parents were farmers and devout followers of the orthodox Congregational faith. Parker attended Yale College, graduating in 1831, and remained in New Haven to study theology and medicine, earning his M.D. from the Medical Institution of Yale College in 1834.

In January of the same year he was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in Philadelphia, one month before departing for Canton as the first Protestant medical missionary to China. One year after his arrival, with assistance from American and British benefactors, he opened the Ophthalmic Hospital at Canton. Parker specialized in treating diseases of the eye, particularly cataracts, but also performed general surgical operations including the removal of tumors. He is probably best known for the introduction of anesthesia to China in the form of sulphuric ether.
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Similar artists

.  There are 4 similar (related) artists for Lam Qua available:    School of China Trade,  Mortimer Luddington Menpes,  George Chinnery,  Vittorio Amadeo Preziosi



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Facts about Lam Qua

   Lam Qua  Born:  1801 - Canton Province, China
Died:   1860 - Guangdong Province, China
Known for:  Western style portrait painting
Name variants:  Lamqua

Biography from the Archives of askART

"Peter Parker's Lam Qua Paintings Collection,"

Peter Parker, medical missionary and diplomat to China, was born in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1804. His parents were farmers and devout followers of the orthodox Congregational faith. Parker attended Yale College, graduating in 1831, and remained in New Haven to study theology and medicine, earning his M.D. from the Medical Institution of Yale College in 1834.

In January of the same year he was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in Philadelphia, one month before departing for Canton as the first Protestant medical missionary to China. One year after his arrival, with assistance from American and British benefactors, he opened the Ophthalmic Hospital at Canton. Parker specialized in treating diseases of the eye, particularly cataracts, but also performed general surgical operations including the removal of tumors. He is probably best known for the introduction of anesthesia to China in the form of sulphuric ether.
During his first trip to China, Parker made the acquaintance of the Western trained Chinese painter, Lam Qua. In the 1820s Lam Qua had studied under the patronage of George Chinnery, the first English painter to settle in China. Lam Qua's training and the level of mastery he developed enabled him to become one of the most revered Chinese painters utilizing the Western style of portraiture.

As a result of his talent, he developed a sizable clientele from the Western community within as well as outside of Asia. The most celebrated body of work by Lam Qua is the impressive collection of portraits, commissioned by Peter Parker in the 1830's, of patients at the Canton Hospital with large tumors or other major deformities. These startling and somewhat gruesome paintings of pathological subject matter are unsettling to the viewer.

One of the most noticeable aspects of each portrait is the expressionless look on the subject's face. The lack of emotion turns the viewer's eye from the subjects' face to their pathology, or illness. Each subject appears to express neither pain nor sadness and serves as a testament to the human spirit in the face of physical adversity. Images displayed here represent only a part of the collection of Lamqua's work held by the Medical Historical Library at Yale University.

The portraits are of men, women, and children of a variety of ages and at various stages in the progression of their tumors. Entries about each portrait have been taken from Peter Parker's journals when available; otherwise, they are accompanied by descriptive material provided by Karina Corrigan, Jack Lee, Ph.D., and William Strole, M.D. under the auspices of the Essex Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. Peter Rachmann, Ph.D., of Michigan State University has identified some of the sitters.
Parker displayed these portraits on trips to the United States to promote his missionary activities. He left them to the Pathology Department of the Yale Medical School, which later gave them to the Historical Library. At some point, the portraits were numbered. Since most of the sitters are still unknown, the titles of the portraits are the numbers.

There are 80 portraits in this collection.


Source:
Website of Yale University School of Medicine Library, 2020


Biography from Christie's London, King Street

Chinnery's views in Canton date to the late summer and autumn months of 1826-9 and 1832. 'Although Chinnery was the only western artist in the small western community on the China coast, he faced competition of a kind which he had not encountered in India. This came from a flourishing school of Cantonese artists who worked 'in the western manner' - generally involving a combination of Chinese and European traditions - for the western market. ...

The best known of the Cantonese 'export artists' contemporary with Chinnery was Guan Qiaochang, known to westerners as Lamqua. Many visitors went to his studio in China Street, Canton, in which he worked with a large number of assistants, following Chinnery's style closely and undercutting Chinnery's prices. ... Lamqua subsequently gained a reputation as a copier of Chinnery's original work. ...

Nevertheless, Lamqua could do more than 'copy after a fashion'. He and other export artists of Canton - their pictures are usually unsigned, and not easily distinguishable - were skillful practitioners, whose painting was not always markedly inferior to Chinnery's.' (P. Conner, op.cit., pp.169-70)

Thomas Mackean was a senior partner in the tea and silk trading company, Turner & Co. in Hong Kong in the mid 19th century. He was recorded in Hong Kong as early as 1843 when sworn in as one of the first 44 Justices of the Peace by the first Colonial Governor, Henry Pottinger.

There is a portrait by Lamqua of Mackean's daughter with her amah recorded; this and the present picture would have been commissioned by Mackean on his regular visits to Canton.


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