A watercolour painting on board, the original artwork to be used by P&O for a poster promoting their services to the Far East. The painting is dated (1938) and initialled (C.R.?) but the artist remains unidentified. A well executed view of the central section of The Shanghai Bund from the HSBC Building to the Cathay Hotel and including the impressive offices of the Chinese Maritime Customs. 

This original artwork would have been passed to the lithographers to translate onto the lithographic stone for printing posters. In many cases the original artwork or maquette would be discarded after the poster was produced and so these originals are extremely rare. In this case, with the war so close and the Japanese already occupying Shanghai the poster from this painting may never have been produced - certainly it is unknown.

A unique piece - highly desirable.

SOLD