Le Bouddha malade dans le temple Guangxiosi à Canton

Félix Élie Régamey's 1877 painting of the sick Buddha in the Guangxiosi Temple in Canton (now Guangzhou) extends the Guimet documentary series from Japan to China. The team paused in Canton during their return voyage, and Régamey recorded Chinese religious imagery with the same observational discipline he had applied to Japanese subjects. The recumbent figure of the Mahaparinirvana Buddha — the dying or entering-nirvana Buddha — is a subject of profound religious significance, and Régamey's rendering of this specific image in its temple context gives the painting a documentary importance beyond its aesthetic qualities. The Guimet Museum holds this as part of the foundational collection.

The composition centers the large recumbent Buddha figure within its architectural temple setting. Régamey's handling would balance the monumental scale of the sculpture with the surrounding decorative architecture. The palette reflects actual temple decoration rather than orientalist invention, with the warm golds and reds common in Chinese Buddhist temples.