Dish with Scene of Woman and Children. Qing dynasty (1644–1911), ca. 1730–50. Porcelain painted in overglaze famille rose enamels and gold. Diam. 8 1/4 in. (21 cm). 14.40.252; Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913. © 2000–2012 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Qing-dynasty porcelains painted with overglaze enamels are often catalogued and dated according to the colors of their palettes using a system first devised in the nineteenth century by a French scholar. Porcelains painted in shades of pink are fittingly known as famille rose. In this dish—whose subject is the popular theme of a woman and children surrounded by luxuries—pink is used for the children's clothing and in one of the borders that frames the charming scene.