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Hollar, Wenceslaus
13th July 1607 - 15th March 1677
He was born in Prague and spent most of his working life in London. He was buried at St Margaret's Church, Westminster.
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Kato, E.
fl.c.1920 - 1940
E. Kato was a Japanese artist who worked in Hong Kong in the 1920s and 1930s. He also visited and painted Singapore. His painting captures the shimmering atmosphere of Hong Kong Harbour. Most of the watercolours we have had are views of the Harbour which show quite a variation of style but are of a consistent quality.
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Menpes, Mortimer
1855 - 1938
Mortimer Menpes [1855-1938]was born in Adelaide in South Australia in 1855. He moved to London with his parents and Rosa Grosse who he married. He became an accomplished painter and engraver.
He shared a studio with James Abbott McNeil Whistler in the 1880s. "I have educated and trained you ... You are but the medium translating the ideas of the Master." Whistler wrote to Menpes. He made two journeys to the Far East. One in 1887 and another in 1896. These etchings of Shanghai were probably exhibited in an exhibition of over 100 of his works at the Dowdeswell Galleries, London in May 1897.
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Paris, Admiral Francois-Edmond
1806 - 1903
The Frenchman, Francois -Edmund Paris (1806-1903), sailed on the circumnavigations of L' Astrolabe, La Favorite and L'Artemise. He produced superb drawings of ships and boats of different countries of the world. Eventually 132 lithographs were produced to illustrate his "Essai sur la Construction Navale des Peuples Extra-Europeens ou Collection des Navires et Pirogues" which was published in Paris by Arthus Bertrand in 1841.
Paris was later made an Admiral and in 1871 he became the curator of the Naval Museum at the Louvre.
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Sing Qua
fl c. 1860s
Sing Qua was a Chinese artist working in Shanghai in the 1860s. We have an oil painting of a British clipper ship, London Ann, which was painted in Shanghai. On the reverse is an old label that reads, Sing Qua, ... from Canton, Ship and Portrait Painter, Richmpaper For Sale, Shanghae.
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Snow, William
1834 -1907
English artist William Roger Snow was born in London, on March 6, 1834. He attended Cambridge University in 1854 He reputedly squandered his inheritance and in 1855 at the age of twenty-one he joined the army. Over the next twenty years he would visit in a number of countries including the Crimea and Hong Kong.
William Snow visited Hong Kong in 1858. Influenced by his stay in Hong Kong he published his first work, Sketches of Chinese Life & Character in 1860. He also exhibited paintings during the 1860s in London. He would later become quite a recognised painter but often using an alias.
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Tingqua
c.1809 – 1870
The Chinese artist Tinqua flourished in the mid nineteenth century. He produced gouache and watercolour paintings of a high quality for the export trade. He set up a studio at No. 16, China Street, Canton. As paintings exist of the interior of his studio we can see that there were a number of skilled artists employed there as assistants. It is possible that Tinqua was the brother of Lamqua who was himself a talented nineteenth century artist who worked in Canton, Macau and Hong Kong. He may also have been the son of Spoilum who was a portrait artist working at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century in Canton.
The paintings were made in bright colours and the quality of the detail was often exquisite. These paintings were often highlighted by pale blue or yellow silk borders that were applied to the pith paper.
References:
Tingqua’s China Martyn Gregory 1986
The China Trade 1600 – 1860 Patrick Conner 1986
Historical Pictures, Collection of the Hong Kong Museum of Art 1991
The Decorative Arts of the China Trade 1991
