This ship's portrait offers a very desirable and rare full view of the harbor of Hong Kong toward the late 1800's.
Beginning early in that century and accelerating into the 1870's with the dangerous, exciting smuggling of opium, the China trade route has been an important era in commerce. Equally, the development of competition between America and Britain for the growing tea trade contributed to a focus in the orient. As a result, many captains commissioned talented Chinese artists to document these vessels whose reputation for speed & efficiency were breaking all records.
Over the years, the value of these "China trade" paintings has shown a very strong, consistent response in the world's arena, several factors of which contribute to the success of these important paintings. One of these is due to fine esthetic qualities that the works possess, a traditional portrait style colored with the romance of the era.
