Qing Dynasty, circa 1800

oil on canvas, depicting a  fleet of moored European trading ships flying the flags of the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Holland and England, next to low warehouses and the Custom House along the banks of the river, framed

This is an early painting of the Whampoa Anchorage and the Custom House.  All western ships were required to remain at anchor at Whampoa and to lower their masts for the six-month wait.  Captains and supercargos proceeded on to Canton to trade in small cutter ships.  Sailors and crew remained aboard the vessels.  See a similar view of Whampoa illustrated in Carl Crossman, The China Trade, Suffolk, 1991, p. 413, fig. 9.