PERMANENT COLLECTION
Two Figures of Ladies on Stands, Chinese, Qing Dynasty (1644−1911), Kangxi Period (1662−1722), hard-paste porcelain with polychrome overglaze, 38 × 10 1/4 × 10 1/4 in. (96.5 × 26 × 26 cm)
Two Figures of Ladies on Stands
On View
First Floor, Room 10, Living Hall
A particularly fruitful and innovative period of production, the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw the development of new techniques and styles of ornamentation. One of the most important contributions was the invention of overglaze enamel palettes, known as famille vert because they are dominated by translucent green glazes. This porcelain figure of an elegant lady on a stand, and its pair, 1918.8.39, are decorated with a colorful mix of green, red, yellow, aubergine, and blue glazes in a pattern of naturalistic motifs including chrysanthemums, rose blossoms, and flying storks combined with abstract elements like the large wan—a swastika-shaped Buddhist symbol for good fortune—that is repeated on the porcelain bases. The women represent ideal female beauty, as defined by the seventeenth-century writer and aesthetician Li Yu (1611–1680): egg-shaped rather than round faces, eyebrows lightly curved like the leaves of a willow tree, lips resembling cherries, and slim, supple, curved bodies also resembling willow trees. Their delicate hands seem to be offering a fruit or a flower, in China the sign of a good wish extended from a woman to a man. These two figural ceramics were probably made for export to the West; however, their large size made them particularly fragile to ship, and only a few ever reached Europe.
Source: Vignon, Charlotte. The Frick Collection Decorative Arts Handbook. New York: The Frick Collection/Scala, 2015.
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UPCOMING ASIA WEEK NEW YORK 2026 LECTURE
Large Dish, Chinese, Qing Dynasty (1644−1911), Kangxi Period (1662−1722), hard-paste porcelain with polychrome overglaze and gilding, diameter: 16 7/8 in. (42.7 cm)
Looking East from Fifth Avenue: Chinese Porcelain at The Frick Collection
Friday, March 20, 2026 at 6pm
Stephen A. Schwarzman Auditorium
Free of Admission
Join Yifu Liu, Anne L. Poulet Curatorial Fellow, for an illuminating lecture exploring the evolution of Chinese porcelain at The Frick Collection—from Henry Clay Frick’s earliest acquisitions to the museum’s most recent additions. It examines the cultural significance of these objects in the early twentieth century and re-evaluates their relevance today within an American art institution traditionally celebrated for its European works of art.
Reserve the date for this special event!
