Subtle Pleasures, Qing dynasty, 19th century | 清十九世紀 〈秘戲〉 一冊八幀全 設色絹本

Ferdinand M. Bertholet, Les Jardins du Plaisir: Érotisme et art dans la Chine ancienne / Gardens of Pleasure: Eroticism and Art in China, Paris, 2003 (rev. English ed., Munich, Berlin, London, New York, 2010), cover and pp. 160-171. 

貝索烈，《Les Jardins du Plaisir: Érotisme et art dans la Chine ancienne / Gardens of Pleasure: Eroticism and Art in China》，巴黎，2003年（英文再版，慕尼黑、柏林、倫敦、紐約，2010年），頁160-171

Delicately painted with soft colouration and accentuated by bright pigments such as malachite and azurite, the album follows the late 18th-century artistic style of workshops in Suzhou. The set presents a range of pictures telling stories of seduction, voyeurism and consummation. One scene shows an elder peep over a screen as a man performs cunnilingus on his partner. Another scene depicts a jealous wife punishing her husband for favouritism towards his concubine. The last scene is remarkable for skillfully putting the viewer in the position of a voyeur; a couple is visible in a passionate embrace through the half-opened window.

Cédric Laurent suggests that this album was a collaborative effort of several artists who drew inspiration from study sketches or model images readily available in the workshops (Le Palais du printemps, op. cit., p. 143).