How mediocre paintings of China became prized collectors’ items

From the mid-18th century onwards, large numbers of foreign (mostly European) merchants and traders came to live on the China coast. Until the establishment of Hong Kong as a British colony in 1841-42, and the opening of the first treaty ports such as Shanghai, they operated out of Canton (modern Guangzhou) and Macau.

Most expatriates didn’t return home for at least a decade – if they survived that long. Without direct personal experience, friends and relatives had only the sketchiest of ideas about the realities of foreign community life on the other side of the world. Before photography was invented, oil and watercolour paintings were all that offered them an impression of what these far-flung places were like.

Paintings served as illustrations (of a sort) for letters sent home. People who would never visit the Far East were able to visualise, to some degree, the remote place where Uncle Harry had gone to work. When he eventually returned, either on leave or to retire, these images provided a point of reference for his earlier China life.

Canton’s foreign factories and the Pearl River waterfront, along with Macau’s Praia Grande and other local landmarks, were stereotypical scenes depicted for “the folks back home”.

After Hong Kong was established, Victoria Harbour and the mountainous Hong Kong skyline also became commonplace subjects.

Regionally famous ships that operated on the Calcutta-Canton run were popular with artists, too.

Few China-trade paintings were – even when judged by prevailing contemporary aesthetic standards – particularly artistic.