Triumphant Grace: Important Americana from the Collection of Barbara and Arun Singh

Triumphant Grace: Important Americana from the Collection of Barbara and Arun Singh

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 1199. A RARE AND IMPRESSIVE PANORAMIC VIEW OF MACAO, ATTRIBUTED TO SUNQUA QING DYNASTY, CIRCA 1850 | 清 約1850年 新呱(傳)澳門南灣全景遠眺 油彩 裝框.

A RARE AND IMPRESSIVE PANORAMIC VIEW OF MACAO, ATTRIBUTED TO SUNQUA QING DYNASTY, CIRCA 1850 | 清 約1850年 新呱(傳)澳門南灣全景遠眺 油彩 裝框

Auction Closed

January 25, 06:44 PM GMT

Estimate

30,000 - 50,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

A RARE AND IMPRESSIVE PANORAMIC VIEW OF MACAO, ATTRIBUTED TO SUNQUA

QING DYNASTY, CIRCA 1850 

清 約1850年 新呱(傳)澳門南灣全景遠眺 油彩 裝框


oil on canvas, depicting the view of Macao from Lappa Island with the Penha hill on the left extending through Fort Guia on the right, extending through Palacio, the Governor's Residence and Fort Monte, the foreground with a two-masted yacht flying the American flag among Chinese and western boats, with Chinese gilt and black-lacquered wood frame

Height 16¼ in., 41.3 cm; width 55 in., 139.7 cm

The Collection of Gideon Nye, New Bedford, Massachusetts

His daugher, Sylvia Parson Nye

Her grandson, Edward Ogley, San Juan, Puerto Rico

William Putnam, San Juan, Puerto Rico, until 1969

The Bertram K. Little and Nina Fletcher Little Collection

Sotheby's, New York, January 29, 1994, lot 450

Margruerite Riordan, Stonington, Connecticut 

Carl L. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade, Suffolk, 1991, p. 131 (not illustrated)

M.V. and Dorothy Brewington, Marine Paintings and Drawings in the Peabody Museum, Salem, MA, 1968, p. 85 

Sunqua (active 1830-70) painted with a distinctive style that has earned him the reputation of one of the most important Chinese painters for the European market of the 19th century. As described in Carl L. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade, Suffolk, 1991, p. 125, Sunqua's earliest works are identifiable by the distinctive use of free brushstrokes and a warm color overall. Sunqua was also known for the delicate treatment of details in his pictures. His later works, such as the current example, are not usually signed. His style became more in tune with the works of other contemporary artists, but his brushstroke remains fluid and the composition and coloring of his paintings becomes stronger. 


This exemplary painting demonstrates Sunqua's later style, and is discussed in Crossman, op. cit., pp. 130-131. Crossman mentions that this particular picture, along with a large view of Canton was acquired by the same person, Gideon Nye of New Bradford. He was a clipper ship owner and tea importer who went to China in the 1840s, and this painting passed down in the family through several generations. A virtually identical painting in the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum is illustrated in M.V. and Dorothy Brewington, Marine Paintings and Drawings in the Peabody Musuem, Salem, MA, 1968, fig. 372.