ARTIST: Fong Lai (Chinese, Indian, 1839 - 1910)
NAME: Sailing Ship Ecclefechan
YEAR: 1897
MEDIUM: oil on canvas
CONDITION: Relined. Three repaired tears (3" longest). Minor craquelure. Some scattered inpainting in bottom part.
SIGHT SIZE: 25 x 35 inches / 63 x 88 cm
FRAME SIZE: 31 x 41 inches / 78 x 104 cm
SIGNATURE: lower right
PROVENANCE: Property from Lawry's The Prime Rib, located in the historic L. Hamilton McCormick Mansion, Chicago, Illinois
SKU#: 118300
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BIOGRAPHY:
Lai Fong was one of a group of Chinese marine painters who worked for the captains and merchants of the oriental trade painting portraits of their ships in oil on canvas. While most worked in Canton, Whampoa, Hong Kong or Shanghai, only one, Lai Fong, worked outside of China in the Indian port of Calcutta. Although many China Trade painters signed or labeled their canvases, Lai Fong was one of the few to regularly date them. From these dates we can see an active painter who worked from the middle 1870s through about 1905. During that period he painted vessels from across the globeв generally in a 26 x 35 inch format. Lai Fong successfully melded the conventions of European and American ship portrait painting with the China Trade oil painting style that developed after 1800. That he was successful and in great demand is indicated by the large number of his paintings that exist today.