19th C. Chinese Pith Painting Portrait of Woman with Opium Pipe physiology Soulful as well as stoic

Soulful as well as stoic though

no tears at all

and that is was produced by Dr

7 3/4" l x 7/8" t x 1/8" thick and wonderfully worn

19th C. Chinese Pith Painting Portrait of Woman with Opium Pipe physiology Soulful as well as stoicThis is a Cantonese gouache painting on pith, mounted to good weight backing paper (blue ribbon runs around the perimeter of the pith paper and is what holds the painting to the larger backing paper), which I believe would originally have been housed in a portfolio containing a set of six or twelve, together portraying a selection of court figures in fine dress, perhaps the emperor and empress, too. I love this woman for the opium pipe in her hands,