This series of paintings dates back to 1800-1820 and depicts a series of different types of boats that use to cross the Pearl River in Guangzhou, China. Each boat is presented isolated in the middle of a rectangular canvas. with the line of the water softly marked with shadows of the color blue. The sequence appears as a series of portraits, each boat nicely detailed over a uniform background. At the time, the river was crossed by all kind of boats and vessels of different sizes and these paintings served as mass-produced souvenirs of the area.
Lord George Macartney (1737-1806), the first British ambassador to China, described that “the river of Canton is covered with boats and vessels of various sorts and sizes, all, even the very smallest, constantly and thickly inhabited”.
The images are hosted in the Victoria & Albert Museum collection in London. Thanks a lot to Brendan Cormier (Lead Curator of 20th and 21st Century Design for the Shekou Partnership at Victoria and Albert Museum) for pointing them out.
A sea-going ship, typically made of ironwood, with three masts
A dragon boat, perhaps preparing for a race. Dragon-boat racing was a festive and very significant event held during the summer.
A boat that carried sugar funnels – cone-shaped vessels used in the production of sugar.
A ferry which the Chinese called ‘boat going to four directions’.
A tail boat, a small craft carrying merchandise that usually followed a larger boat.
A Chinese emperor’s boat. In the early 19th century the Chinese emperor Jiaqing never made a trip to Canton, so the painting is likely to have been a product of the artist’s imagination rather than drawn from life.
A cross-water ferry, the most common means of transport across the Pearl River.
A ferry transporting cotton.
A boat that plied the river between the Guangxi and Guangdong provinces. The boat was named after its place of origin, Guilin.
A boat transporting oyster shells, which, because of their rough surface, were pasted on the exterior walls of residential houses as a security device.
A boat transporting timber.
A passenger boat running between Xi-nan town and other counties and market towns in Guangdong province.
A common salt junk that plied the river between towns of the Guangdong province.
A theatrical troupe’s boat, in which players travelled by river to perform in different towns and counties.
A duck boat. Duck-raising was a very common means of livelihood for the population of the Pearl River delta. The boat was specially designed to function both as the home and transport vessel for the ducks.
A large trawler, equipped with bamboo fishing baskets and nets.
A floating grocery, where food such as pork, rice and fruit was sold alongside cooking stoves, joss sticks and paper ingots.
A prostitute’s boat. The large, elegantly decorated pleasure boat remained stationary on the river and clients were ferried to it.
The Dongguan cargo boat plying between the village and Canton along the East River.
A pimp’s boat, used to ferry clients from the shore to the prostitute’s boat which remained stationary on the river.
A fishing junk, a small boat along which one or two fishermen spread their net.
A rice-selling barge that plied its trade off the coast of Canton.
A boat that carried rice from Guangxi and Hunan provinces to Guangdong via the West River.
A ferry operating at night.
A ‘shagu’, a mobile brothel that plied the Pearl River.
A boat carrying stone slabs.
The words on the banner read ‘The Guangdong Maritime Customs’.
Rice and salt were the two staple food items transported in purpose-built boats like this one.
A ‘chop’ boat. (A ‘chop’ is the official stamp indicating that cargo had been cleared by customs.) The boat has circular decks and sides and resembles a melon – the Chinese called it a ‘water-melon boat’.
A boat carrying rice from other provinces. Natives of Guangdong routinely referred to other provinces as ‘outside the river’.
A dragon boat, perhaps preparing for a race. Dragon-boat racing was a festive and very significant event held during the summer.
All images © Victoria and Albert Museum
Amazing!
Thanks a lot
are we to understand these drawings (dated just after 1800) to be paintings done by Lord George Macartney and the colonizing body Britain just after 1800, or as drawings seized from their painters by the British circa 1800?
THANK YOU for sharing these beautiful and historically significant images! This page is fantastic, and was of great use to me as visual reference. I cannot thank you enough for posting these images online and maintaining them here.