View of Macau - Borget 1842

Borget’s View of Macau (1842)

Title: Petit bateau de passage de Macao (Chine, Pl. 67)
Artist: Auguste Borget
Lithographer: Eugène Cicéri
Origin: Paris, France
Date: 1842
Technique: Lithograph with original hand-coloring

The Narrative: A French Artist on the China Coast

This print tells the story of the quiet, daily rhythms of Macau during the late Qing Dynasty. Auguste Borget, a close friend of the novelist Honoré de Balzac, spent ten months in the region between 1838 and 1839. Unlike many of his contemporaries who focused on the grand architecture of colonial trade, Borget was celebrated for his sensitive, intimate depictions of local life, bamboo dwellings, and traditional maritime culture.

This scene captures the unique "passage boats" used to ferry goods and people across the Pearl River Delta. It depicts a moment of repose along the rocky shoreline, featuring the distinctive thatched coverings and intricate rigging of the region's small craft. Borget’s work provides one of the most authentic visual records of pre-industrial South China, created just years before the landscape was irrevocably changed by the First Opium War.

Chronicles of the Print

• The "Passage Boat" Tradition: The focal point is a traditional Macanese ferry boat, showing the detailed bamboo-matted roofs used for protection against the sun and monsoon rains.

• Borget’s Romantic Realism: The print is known for its "painterly" quality, typical of the French Romantic school, which prioritized atmosphere and human connection over rigid technical drafting.

• Masterful Lithography: Executed by the renowned lithographer Eugène Cicéri and printed by Lemercier in Paris, the plate features soft, graduated tones that perfectly mimic Borget’s original pencil and wash sketches.

• Plate 67: This specific plate is a part of the rare folio edition of La Chine et les Chinois, which remains one of the most sought-after 19th-century illustrated books on the Far East.