19th Century China Trade Seascape with the Ship Avon at Sea, by Lai Fong, circa 1890

19th Century China Trade Seascape with the Ship Avon at Sea, by Lai Fong (active: 1875 – 1905), circa 1890, an oil on canvas starboard side view of a square-rigged ship under full sail on a crisp sea, with the distant background water under bright sunlight, and another ship hazy in the horizon mist, unsigned. This is one of a series of three paintings by Lai Fong of the Avon offered here.

The painting is finely painted in a thin coat on a thin canvas, as is typical with China Port paintings. It has fantastic, precise detail and a very pleasant, crisp palette. It has been relined and remains in very good condition with only small spots of chaife or possible touch-ups along the frame margin, mostly in the lower right. Mounted in the original hardwood frame with gilt filet.

The Avon was built as the “Dunolly” by Charles Connell of Glasgow in 1884, at 256 foot length, 38 foot beam, 23 foot depth and a displacement of 1,572 tons. She was purchased by the Nourse Line and renamed the “Avon” in 1890. She was used in the China Trade primarily for transporting laborers from India to other British colonies.

Lai Fong was born in Hong Kong and was active in the last quarter of the 19th Century. He later migrated to Calcutta became one of the leading port painters. In his career spanning from the mid-1870s to around 1905, he painted a wide variety of vessels from around the world, and his work featured a blend of European and American norms of ship portrait painting rendered in the China Trade style. He was renown for his precise, even scrupulous detail to the ships, with such focus that he tended to leave his backgrounds fairly plain without great coastal landscape detail. Lai Fong frequently dated his work, while most China trade paintings were neither signed nor dated.

Measures: 9-1/2 in H x 15-5/8 in W
Framed: 14 in H x 20-1/4 in W