The steamer ‘Honam’ at the Kowloon docks

This unusual canvas signed with initials by Chevalier must have been worked up from drawings made on his brief stay at Hong Kong in October-November 1869, when accompanying the Duke of Edinburgh on the Galatea. Chevalier was invited to join the Duke of Edinburgh's party for the homeward journey after the Duke's second visit to Australia in March 1869. 'Chevalier travelled with the Duke until 6 April 1870, visiting Sydney, New Zealand, Tahiti, Japan, China, India and Ceylon and painting 110 watercolours. ... In Ceylon Chevalier left the Duke at Kandy and travelled to England, where he spent the rest of his life. On 3 August 1871, the Duke showed the Queen 'the beautiful drawing & sketches by Chevalier of his cruize' (Journal).' (D. Millar, The Victorian Watercolours and Drawings in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, I, London, 1995, p.190). There are just a handful of portrait studies in 'Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh's Scrapbook, 1869 Red' which date to the Galatea's Hong Kong anchorage between 31 October and 16 November 1869. (D. Millar, Ibid., nos 980, 985, 988 and 989). Chevalier exhibited a Hong Kong subject in the exhibition of Water-colour sketches and drawings in illustration of the cruise ... held at the South Kensington Museum in 1872 (no.50. 'The Harbour of Hongkong with H.M.S. Galatea; the new town-hall seen in the foreground; the 2nd of November 1869.')
We are grateful to Simon Gregg for confirming the attribution.