Lot Essay
On August 28, 1784, more than six months after she had set out from New York, the Empress of China eased her way into the crescent of ships at Whampoa, fired thirteen guns in salute, and dropped anchor. Seventy miles above Macao, and ten miles below Canton, in the Pearl River lay this anchorage for trading vessels of many nations, where they waited for cargoes. The anchorage is suggested in this view by two ships located below a Western-style cemetery on Dane's Island. In the far right background looms Whampoa, dominated by the nine storey high pagoda venerated by the Chinese and viewed as an object of curiosity to Westerners first anchoring in the exotic land. Since foreign traders were not permitted on the Chinese mainland, small islands, such as Dane's Island, were designated for their use during the season as recreation areas to indulge in Chinese spirits supplied from makeshift taverns on the island. The island also served as the burial of the unfortunate Westerners who had suffered from disease and deprivation. The cemetery was a reminder that the China trade, immensely profitable for a select few, was also a long, arduous, and dangerous undertaking.
Sunqua, a painter working in Canton and Macao, was widely known for his paintings of ships, ports, and related landscapes of the China trade. His earliest works are easily identifiable by their distinctive compositions, technique of drawing trees, and the effect of morning light diffused throughout clouds. (See, Carl L. Crossman, The China Trade: Export Paintings, Furniture, Silver and Other Objects (Princeton, NJ, 1972), pp. 54-55; De Cordova Museum, The China Trade: Romance and Reality, (Lincoln, MA, 1979), exhib., June 22 - September 16, 1979.)
Two other versions of the same picture by Sunqua are known. One is in the Museum of the American China Trade, and is signed. Another, now in the collection of the Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, is discussed and illustrated in Carl L. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of China Trade, (Suffolk, England, 1991), p. 126, pl. 46.
For two related subject paintings sold at Christie's, Hong Kong, September 26, 1989, Lot 954, and October 9, 1990, Lot 1318.
Sunqua, a painter working in Canton and Macao, was widely known for his paintings of ships, ports, and related landscapes of the China trade. His earliest works are easily identifiable by their distinctive compositions, technique of drawing trees, and the effect of morning light diffused throughout clouds. (See, Carl L. Crossman, The China Trade: Export Paintings, Furniture, Silver and Other Objects (Princeton, NJ, 1972), pp. 54-55; De Cordova Museum, The China Trade: Romance and Reality, (Lincoln, MA, 1979), exhib., June 22 - September 16, 1979.)
Two other versions of the same picture by Sunqua are known. One is in the Museum of the American China Trade, and is signed. Another, now in the collection of the Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, is discussed and illustrated in Carl L. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of China Trade, (Suffolk, England, 1991), p. 126, pl. 46.
For two related subject paintings sold at Christie's, Hong Kong, September 26, 1989, Lot 954, and October 9, 1990, Lot 1318.