Author: [Gobaut, G.]
Title: Combat de Pa-Li-Ki-Ao (21 septembre 1860, à midi).
Description: Paris, Lemercier, ca. 1861. Oblong broadside (62.7 x 91.8 cm). With mounted oblong chromolithograph (37.5 x 58.2 cm), and mounted printed caption (5.6 x 13.8 cm). = A magnificent battlefield scene, commemorating the final battle of the Second Opium War, or Arrow War, (1856-1860) between the Qing Empire and Anglo-French forces. The work is not signed, but the artist is most probably the French painter Gaspard Gobaut (1814-1882). Published as Collection des Aquarelles militaires du Département de la Guerre. No. 10. Gobaut did sign a highly similar scene, the battle of Tchang-Kia-Wan, which is No. 6 in the same series. Gobaut was a student of Jean-Antoine Siméon Fort (1793-1861) and Théodore Jung (1803-1865). In Paris he served in the central administration of the Ministry of Defence. He was rapidly promoted and obtained the title of first-class illustrator. In 1871, he was awarded the Légion d'Honeur. Stylistically, this scene could be the work of Jung. Battle scenes were a speciality of both men. The large sheet with some foxing and a small damp-stain in the left-lower corner; the mounted print, however, spotless. A very good copy.

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