In this painting celebrated French maritime artist Roger Chapelet is merging his knowledge of historical ships with his travels in Asia. Three American merchant vessels sit in an Asian harbor. The artist identifies the main vessel on the reverse of the painting- The Wandering Jew, an American Bark built in 1880 by Smith and Terry of Greenport, Long island for Owner A.F. Ulmer. She was 141 feet in length with a weight of 667 tons, and was known to have carried cargo from New York to San Francisco among other routes. Inches
As the official artist of the French Navy Chapelet spent time painting French naval actions in Southeast Asia during the First Indochina War in the late 1940's and early 1950's, so he would have been familiar with the small trading boats in the foreground and, in the center, the larger wooden cargo vessels with battened sails sometimes referred to as junks. Ships of this type were used in the area in both the time of The Wandering Jew and of the artist, so with his great knowledge of sailing ships he could combine the two to create a plausible vignette of international trade.
The painting has both the strong attention to detail for which the artist was known along with artistic touches and coloration typical of the mid-20th century, creating a dynamic portrait.
