Tail Boat
1810
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1810
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Tail Boat is a 1810 paint by Unknown, a Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows a small boat on the water, carrying merchandise. The boat is a tail boat, which followed larger boats on the river. It was part of a set of 50 paintings, made to show the different types of boats on the Pearl River. This painting is similar to others from the same time, and to learn more, you can look into the technique of chiaroscuro.
The painting depicts a rectangular scene featuring two boats on a river. The smaller boat, a tail boat used for transporting goods behind larger vessels, carries two passengers and is shown moving toward a larger vessel adorned with colorful trellis panelling. Part of a set of 50 mass-produced souvenir paintings illustrating Pearl River boat types, this work was originally part of a folio now dispersed, with its pages numbered and accompanied by a list of images. The setting reflects Lord George Macartney’s 18th-century observation of the densely populated river traffic in Canton.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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