Far East: A street in Manila during the flood

Charles Wirgman arrived in Hong Kong in May 1857 as the Illustrated London News special artist and correspondent, dispatched to cover the Second Opium war of the late 1850s. One of his first excursions from Hong Kong was to the Philippines in early July 1857, a trip which lasted until mid-October of that year. Many of his sketches were engraved to illustrate his reports and the heavy rains he encountered upon his arrival in Manila prompted a running commentary and flurry of sketches. A report from 2 August commences, 'You good people of the "far west"', a phrase that juxtaposes with the title 'Far East' inscribed by the artist on the reverse of the present watercolour. He continues, 'did you ever complain of the damp in England? If so you labour under a great delusion...when you have rain descending in perpendicular torrents for ten days and nights without intermission, accompanied by crashing thunder, flashing forked lightning, and roaring winds, with the addition of a flood like that we had at Manilla at the beginning of July, you may say you have seen bad weather, and not till then.... We sat at our window all day sketching: then a boatful of girls and men going to the cigar manufactory would pass; then another boat of Spaniards out for the day, wet through and shivering but supremely happy. ..We walked out to see what was doing, though minus shoes and stockings, and in quaint costumes; or we amused ourselves paddling canoes.' This text accompanied the companion watercolour to the present lot, Our Street during the Flood, Girls going to the tobacco manufactory during the flood and continued, 'You would not think it a street; the sketch shows what the nipa houses are like, built entirely of bamboo and leaves, and the rooms all being about eight or ten feet above ground. This would be a good plan for huts in China for the troops; they are impervious to rain, which swells the leaves, so the more it rains the drier they keep... no one in the Philippines ever lives on the ground floor, so that fevers are, I may say, unknown.' 'Sketches from Manilla and Hong-Kong', Illustrated London News, 17 October 1857, pp. 384-5.

Wirgman remained based in Hong Kong until he moved to Japan in April 1861 following the signing of Lord Elgin's treaty with China. The companion watercolour was sold Christie's Swire, Hong Kong, 26 September 1989, lot 883.