19th Century Chinese school

View of the Hongs, Canton

Circa 1850

This highly detailed harbor scene features many ships of various types, something British Royal Naval officer and artist Commander Charles Lodder would have seen in his everyday life...

Although suggesting a yacht or boating club due to its prime waterfront location, this panoramic view by Philadelphia artist Xanthus Smith, most likely shows a US Lifesaving Service facility in one of the mid-Atlantic states. Originating in the mid-1800’s, the U.S. Lifesaving Service’s earliest buildings were strictly utilitarian, but as the Service grew, so did the size of the stations. By the 1880s, they were becoming more fashionable and usually were made up of two or three structures as shown here. The main building contained the offices and berthing area for the crew and usually featured a lookout tower on the roof. Smaller buildings housed classrooms and medical facilities. Some were built to resemble a Swiss chalet and one was even designed with a clock tower. Noted architect A. B. Bibb designed stations like this one that looked much like beach resort homes with lookout towers. The stations were usually located near the approaches to major ports and were maintained by the United States Revenue Marine (later renamed the United States Revenue Cutter...

In this atmospheric and luminous work by E.T. Baker, the busy port of New York hosts a huge number of ships coming and going near the Battery and the famous landmark of Castle Garden...

Thomas Birch is considered one of the earliest American Marine painters of importance both in his own time and historically, forming the foundation of what would become a great American Maritime movement in the successive years of the 19th century. Born in England, Birch started as a landscape painter but after the War of 1812 he turned to marine subjects, taking inspiration from the best of both English and Dutch maritime traditions but refining these techniques into a very recognizable style all his own. The work featured here is a classic of Birch's later period, when he focused specifically on maritime subjects, mainly the busy waterways of Philadelphia Harbor. Here we see one of those scenes- a series of ships plying their trade, all framed by the city as it sits across the Delaware River, with the tall, white spire of what is either Independence Hall or Christ Church to the left of the main vessel. The details of the city are particularly good in this painting, with the wharf building to the left and the long line of buildings all along the shore. The American Merchant Bark at the center of this painting is rendered in excellent detail, from her house flag and pennant, to her rigging and sails, and down to her deck filled with the activity of crewmembers readying the ship to head out, her gilt billet...

[CHINESE SCHOOL]. Chinese Craft on the Pearl River. Canton, circa 1810. A pencil, water colour and body colour drawing of craft, heightened with white on paper watermarked ‘J Whatm...

Ancient View of Hong Kong is an original modern artwork realized in Italy in the first half of the 19th Century. Original B/W Lithograph on Ivory Paper. Inscripted on the lower ma...

[CHINESE SCHOOL]. Chinese Craft on the Pearl River. Canton, circa 1810. Pencil, water colour and body colour drawings of craft, heightened with white on paper watermarked ‘J Whatm...

Bocca Tigris, Chinese Export Trade, circa 1850 Qing Dynasty - one of a set of three Large circa 1850 Qing Dynasty view of Bocca Tigris, oil on canvas. Important early and excellent...