Chinese Silk Erotic Painting

Made for private looking, and painted with unhurried care.

This erotic painting comes from China, 20th century, in watercolor on silk, mounted and backed. Chinese erotic pictures, often called spring pictures, circulated privately among those who could afford them and are thought to have served variously as instruction for newlyweds and as a discreet pleasure of the educated household. An embracing couple occupies a low daybed on a terrace, with bamboo and a garden rock beyond the railing. A pale floral brocade surrounds the scene. Fourteen inches high and nine wide.

Intimacy is the subject here, and it is treated with care.