Description:
Chinese gouache image on pith paper of the Pearl River and the foreign factory buildings at Canton in the distance as seen from the island of Honam, attributed to the Studio of Tingqua (working 1840-1870). Tingqua (Guan Lianchang) (b.1809), the younger brother of the artist Lam Qua (Guan Qiaochang), worked exclusively in watercolor and gouache in either miniature or standard formats; his characteristic palette included purple-blue skies and tree leaves highlighted with white, drawn with precise brush strokes. By the 1830s, a flourishing business in pith paper paintings had developed as more Cantonese artisans moved away from producing larger-scale watercolors and oil paintings toward these smaller, easily transported souvenirs. Albums of pith paper images were extremely inexpensive forms of artwork, usually selling for just a few dollars apiece. After the First Opium War (1839-1842) new warehouses and factories were erected on Honam, which means "south bank" in Cantonese. As the demand for tea and other merchandise continued to grow, British merchants leased Honan's northwestern corner, where they established a new commercial area across the river from the original foreign factories. In this foreground, Chinese laborers or "coolies" load boxes of tea into an awaiting sampan. The journal of Bostonian Thomas Wade Abbot (1820-1908) described these workers as “the lowest & at the same time most muscular of the Chinese. I have often seen them carrying 8 Chests of Tea slung on a Bamboo, one man at each end….” The river has several chop boats, sampans, a Chinese pleasure or flower boat in reds and greens, and the side-wheeler "Spark," which was brought to Canton in 1849 by American merchant, Robert Bennett Forbes. The Canton waterfront has the American, English and Danish flags flying in front of their factories; the sand-colored Gothic-revival Western or Protestant Church (destroyed by fire 1856) in the center. The buildings (from left to right) include; King & Co.; Lindsay & Co., Wetmore & Co.; Russell & Co.; Nye & Co.; Western Church; Cassumbhon Nathabhog & Co.; Gibb Livingstone; Holliday Wise & Co.; Consul; Vice-Consul; Augustine Heard & Co.; Jardine Matheson & Co.; The Club.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+60.215 |
