This painting is unusual since it claims that its subject matter is Taiping rebels capturing a British Officer. The rebels in the painting still have pigtails, something the Taiping banned. None of the rebels have the Taiping headscarf. I have 3 possible theories for this. Theory number one is just that the painting suffers Victorian fancifulness, the artist might of had a poor understanding of the subject matter. Thus he depicted the rebels as stereotypical Chinese people. Theory number two is that the painting could be depicting rebel societies like the Small Swords that are only theoretically controlled by the Taipings, thus ignoring Taiping dress regulation. Theory number three is that painting could be actually be depicting the Boxer Revolt, and the painting is just mislabeled.
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