The Chinese Market

Unknown artist

This tapestry is part of a set of ‘Chinese’ wall hangings, after a design by the French painter François Boucher of 1742. It presents an imaginary view of a marketplace in Asia. It teems with the type of Asian luxury goods that were shipped to the northern Netherlands during the 17th century and subsequently found their way throughout Europe: porcelain, lacquerware, weapons and textiles. Such objects along with illustrated 17th-century Dutch travel accounts were an important source for Boucher.