Chinese Reverse Glass Portrait with Painted Fan, c. 1900

Popularized during the Qing dynasty, reverse glass painting requires an artist to essentially work backwards, starting with details and shading before adding color and form. Lending the finished work a subtle three-dimensional effect, this exacting technique doesn't allow for any corrections, and is only revealed to its full effect when the glass pane is turned around. This example dates to the late 19th century and depicts the Taoist immortals He Xiangu and Cao Guojiu. Said to have attained immortality through their studies of the natural world, the Eight Immortals each represent a different condition in life and impart blessings of prosperity and longevity. The charming scene is likely one of a set of...

Reflecting the role that ancestor worship played in Chinese culture, this Qing-dynasty painting depicts several generations of family, dressed in intricately-detailed and brilliantly...

This intricately detailed composition is a late-Qing dynasty ancestor portrait depicting several generations of a family's male ancestry. Or...

In celebration of the lunar New Year festival, it was traditional all over China to hang special decorations. In a city called Wuqiang, local artists made lacquer scroll paintings laden with symbolism. This framed and finely rendered early 20th century folk painting from Wuqiang features an imperial court official and his family dressed in their best silks. The young boy is dressed in a wonderfully patterned yellow robe to offer Shou Xing...

This Chinese portrait depicts a young woman and was painted using a reverse glass painting technique. Painting in reverse on the opposite side of a piece of glass meant the painter h...

Antique Verre Eglomise Chinese Export reverse glass painting. Beautiful Chinese reverse glass painting of two women in a Chinese garden with a scroll. This painting is particularly vibrant and exquisite in color and detail. The wood frame painting...

A pair of Chinese reverse glass painting representing women and a child in a garden pavillion. Original "Chinese Chippendale" framing. China for expo...

Chinese ancestor portrait of a Mandarin Dignitary. Antique tempera on paper painting of a Mandarin Dignitary wearing a red court dress and s...