Description

chromolithograph.

The German artist Eduard Hildebrandt painted this vibrant watercolour of Queen’s Road, when he visited
Hong Kong in 1864. Here, he conveys the rapid expansion of Hong Kong, evoking both the character of its colonial architecture and the vitality of daily life unfolding along the street. The work was first published as a colour-printed lithograph mounted on a board by Georg Stilke, ca. end 1864, followed by Rudolf Wagner and Raimund Mitscher in 1871-74 as chromolithographs by R. Steinbock and collated as “Reise um die Erde” [Journey Around the Earth], with text by R. Weisse. Re-editions appeared in different publications, such as this one issued as a chromolithograph, printed and published in 1905 by Società Editrice Libraria for Il Secolo XIX descritto ed illustrato by Hans Krämer. Born in Gdansk (formerly Danzig/Germany), Hildebrandt (1818-1869), a pupil of the marine painter Wilhelm Kreuse (1803-64), studied watercolour painting with Eugène Isabey, Paris, and returned to Berlin in 1843, where Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1855) introduced him to King Frederik William IV. Hildebrandt travelled around the world, creating more than 400 watercolours.