Lam Qua
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lam Qua (林官), or real name, Guan Qiaochang or Kwan Kiu Cheong (關喬昌) (1801 – 1860) was a Western-trained Chinese painter from Guangdong Province of Qing Dynasty China. Lam Qua was the first Chinese portrait painter to be exhibited in the West and is best known for his medical portraiture. He had a workshop in Thirteen Factories of Canton City, China.
In the 1820s, Lam Qua studied with George Chinnery, the first English painter to settle in China. Lam Qua became well-known and skilled in Western style of portraiture. He developed a following among the international community. George Chinnery painted Lam Qua and his brother Tin Qua (庭官), Kwan Luen Cheong (關聯昌). Eventually, Chinnery broke with Lam Qua when Lam Qua began to lower his prices, undercutting Chinnery.
From 1836 to 1855, Lam Qua produced a series of medical portraits of patients under treatment with physician Peter Parker, a medical missionary from the United States. Dr. Parker commissioned Lam Qua to paint pre-operative portraits of patients who had large tumors or other major deformities. Some of the paintings are now part of a collection of Lam Qua's work held by the Yale University in the Peter Parker Collection at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library.
[edit] External links
- Gilman, S. Lam Qua and the development of a westernized medical iconography in China J. Medical Hist. (1986)
- Peter Parker Collection Yale University
- Chang, J. A reconstructive surgeon's taste in art: Dr Peter Parker and the Lam Qua oil paintings Ann Plast Surg. (1993)
- Hume, Edward Peter Parker and the Introduction of Anesthesia into China Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (1946)
