VUE DE LA CONCESSION FRANCAISE A SHANGHAI

The painting shows to the right the Yangjingbang Bridge, commissioned by the French Consul, M. Benoit Edan, and built in 1856 which dates our painting to after 1856. The French Concession was established on 6 April 1849, when the French Consul to Shanghai, M. Charles de Montigny, obtained a proclamation of the Governor of Shanghai, which conceded certain territory for a French settlement. The French Concession effectively occupied a narrow 'collar' of land around the northern end of the Old City, south of the British settlement. At an area of 66 hectares, the French Concession was about a third of the size of the British settlement at that time. A further small strip of riverside land to the east of the Old City was added in 1861, to allow the construction of the Quai de France, to service shipping between China and France. For more information read E. Politzer, The Changing Face of the Shanghai Bund Circa 1849-1879, Arts of Asia, vol. 35, no. 2, March-April 2005. See also an important view of The Bund c. 1867 by painter Chow Kwa offered at Christie's London, 14 December 2018, lot 41.