RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h
NINETEENTH CENTURY WATER-COLOURS OF CANTON

21

XIV Mahometan pagoda & Belfry from W. gate Canton March 12 58

View over roof-tops from a terrace. Tree-capped pagoda in distance.

XVII Macao April 58

View of sea-front, with sampans in foreground.

XX Peiho River July 3rd 58

Small British gun-boat, no. 83, in the river with military figures on the banks.

XXV North of Formosa Id. July 30th 1858

Junk in rough seas off mountainous coast.

XXVI Pagoda Chimmo Bay N. of Amoy Augst 3rd 58

Figures in small boat with mountains and pagoda in the background.

XXVII Victoria Hong Kong Augt 14 58

Hong Kong harbour, town and peak from Stonecutters Island.

XXVIII In Tartar Yamun August 58

Red-coated soldier in front of a hall, with a pagoda in background.

XXXI Canton Septr 58

Magazine Hill 5 storied pagoda N. Gate

Chinese carrying a load outside gate of Canton, with walls and features of the town visible in the background.

XXXIII Honan Temple Octr 5th 58 GAS

Main hall of temple with Chinese walking about.

XXXV Canton Octr 58 E. Wall

Walls, with a pagoda in the distance.

XLIII Novr 18, 58. Gates of Confucius Temple

The College From S, Wall Canton

Entrance gates in foreground, with temple buildings behind.

XLV Howqua's Garden Dec 21 58 GAS

Pavillion in lake, with trees and other buildings around.

Unnumbered Faint pencil inscription: Tombs in Canton(?)

Tombs and coffins in front of a Chinese temple, with a view of water in the background.

The sketches show a certain amateur artistic ability. Some of them are of views which were very popular among book illustrators
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h
22

P. H. COLLIN

of the time. The painting of the praya at Macao (No. XVII) is a scene which is found in many nineteenth-century illustrated books;* the picture of the East walls of Canton (No. XXXV) is virtually the same as that of the frontispiece of Fisher's Three Years' Service in China, that of Howqua's garden (No. XLV) closely resembles the frontispiece of Albert Smith's pamphlet To China and Back. The dealer from whom the paintings were acquired was unable to identify their origin, nor the artist whose initials G.A.S. appear on numbers XXXIII and XLV. Nor was it possible to find any clues as to the whereabouts of the missing paintings, which, to go by the Roman numbers on the reverse, must be at least twenty-five in number.

To discover the identity of the artist, there are certain clues in the paintings themselves. In view of their dates, it seems certain that he must have come to the Far East in connection with the "Arrow" war and the capture of Canton in December 1857. Reinforcements for this campaign were requested by Admiral Seymour in the summer of 1857 and arrived in China waters during the autumn of that year. The first to arrive were the steam-transports Imperador and Imperatrix, which reached Hong Kong on 28th October and 6th November respectively. Some time after them came the Adelaide, also a steamer, which, although leaving England at the same time as others (the Imperador left Plymouth on August 10th, the Imperatrix on 12th August, the Adelaide on 17th August), only arrived in Hong Kong on December 1st. Wingrove Cooke, in his despatches to "The Times", reveals the impatience of the Hong Kong garrison with what he calls "this lagging log, the Adelaide." In a later report, he states that "the long-expected Adelaide made her appearance on the 1st, having on board twenty officers and 507 rank and file". Judging from the date on the first painting, the artist we are concerned with must have been aboard the Adelaide: perhaps he devoted himself to painting to relieve the tedium of the excessively long voyage.

There were, of course, people in Hong Kong at the time who might have painted the pictures. Albert Smith mentions meeting on 24th August 1858 the son-in-law of the P. and O. agent, a “Mr.

* As, for example, in James Orange, The Chater Collection, Pictures relating to China, Hong Kong, Macao 1655-1830 (1924).
================================================================================