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Sing Qua
fl c. 1860s
Sing Qua was a Chinese artist working in Shanghai in the 1860s. We have an oil painting of a British clipper ship, London Ann, which was painted in Shanghai. On the reverse is an old label that reads, Sing Qua, ... from Canton, Ship and Portrait Painter, Richmpaper For Sale, Shanghae.
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Snow, William
1834 -1907
English artist William Roger Snow was born in London, on March 6, 1834. He attended Cambridge University in 1854 He reputedly squandered his inheritance and in 1855 at the age of twenty-one he joined the army. Over the next twenty years he would visit in a number of countries including the Crimea and Hong Kong.
William Snow visited Hong Kong in 1858. Influenced by his stay in Hong Kong he published his first work, Sketches of Chinese Life & Character in 1860. He also exhibited paintings during the 1860s in London. He would later become quite a recognised painter but often using an alias.
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Tingqua
c.1809 – 1870
The Chinese artist Tinqua flourished in the mid nineteenth century. He produced gouache and watercolour paintings of a high quality for the export trade. He set up a studio at No. 16, China Street, Canton. As paintings exist of the interior of his studio we can see that there were a number of skilled artists employed there as assistants. It is possible that Tinqua was the brother of Lamqua who was himself a talented nineteenth century artist who worked in Canton, Macau and Hong Kong. He may also have been the son of Spoilum who was a portrait artist working at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century in Canton.
The paintings were made in bright colours and the quality of the detail was often exquisite. These paintings were often highlighted by pale blue or yellow silk borders that were applied to the pith paper.
References:
Tingqua’s China Martyn Gregory 1986
The China Trade 1600 – 1860 Patrick Conner 1986
Historical Pictures, Collection of the Hong Kong Museum of Art 1991
The Decorative Arts of the China Trade 1991
