Stone Slabs Boat

Executed in muted tones, it was part of a set of 50 mass-produced images sold as souvenirs, illustrating the diverse vessels crowding the river.

The rectangular painting depicts a boat on the Pearl River, its stern elevated above the bow, with a figure adjusting sails at the rear and another centrally organizing stone slabs. Executed in muted tones, it was part of a set of 50 mass-produced images sold as souvenirs, illustrating the diverse vessels crowding the river. Originally contained in a folio now dispersed, the sheets bear sequential numbers, with one page listing the series. The scene aligns with Lord George Macartney’s 18th-century account of the densely occupied waterway.