Vintage Framed East West Advertisement

Mixing Western and traditional pictorial styles, this vintage ad depicts a young family on a garden stroll. A cheongsam-clad woman nods to tradition in contrast to her Western-garbed family: a son in shorts and a dapper husband in suit, hat, and walking stick. The composition’s perspective and realism conform to Western aesthetics, but the artist roots the advertisement in Chinese culture by providing a glimpse of a traditional pavilion and bordering the composition in an intricate vine motif. Today, prints such as this one are prized by collectors and preserved in museum collections both for their artistry and the unique glimpse they give of the past.