Coaxing secrets from drifting art

A tale of two fort frames

While each of the "trade paintings" has its own story, Kuang's favorite is a tale of two fort paintings — featuring a fort preserved in pigment, and another with a note that turns art into evidence.

About 20 years ago, while browsing an American antique shop in Washington, DC, Kuang encountered two paintings displayed as a pair: one of a "country theater" and the other of a riverfront fort, a key part of Guangzhou's coastal defenses during the Opium Wars in the 19th century.

Kuang recognized the paintings as "sisters" and couldn't bear the thought of separating them.

"I knew their importance. I had studied China trade paintings, and I knew Haizhu Fort was famous," Kuang says.

While many depicted the famous fortification, this one uniquely displayed the two Chinese characters for its name, hai zhu, on the front of the structure. That detail, Kuang says, "predetermined its irreplaceable historical value".

The painting offers a rare snapshot of Qing Dynasty coastal defenses, as Haizhu and other forts were critical in resisting foreign invasion, according to Kuang.

"The work witnessed — and in a sense lived through — a war that remains an enduring humiliation in Chinese history. The once-magnificent Haizhu Fort and the enormous Haizhu Rock no longer exist; what remains is only the crystallization of the painter's emotion," he says.

During the Second Opium War (1856-60), Britain launched military action using the so-called Arrow Incident as a pretext. On Oct 25, 1856, British forces captured Haizhu Fort, seizing all 50 of its cannons, Kuang writes in his book China Trade — Qing Dynasty Guangdong Historical Paintings.

Kuang notes many similar paintings are mislabeled "The Dutch Folly", a label he considers unreliable as they often depict structures instead of the Haizhu Fort.