Fine atmospheric oil of a narrow stepped street in Hong Kong, a version of which was published as plate 116 of the grand portfolio depicting his world travels.
Eduard Hildebrandt was born in Danzig in 1817, he studied with the marine artist Wilhelm Krause, and with Eugene Isabey in Paris, winning three medals at the Paris salon in 1843. On his return to Berlin, his talent as a landscape painter attracted the attention of Alexander von Humboldt, who recommended him to the Prussian king, Friedrich Wilhelm IV. As a result he was made Painter to the Royal Court, and was supported in his subsequent extensive, and expensive, travels. Between 1844 and 1851 he travelled throughout the Americas, Europe and the Levant and in 1862-4 his Reise um die Erde (Journey round the World) took him from Trieste through Suez to India, and on to Siam (Thailand), Macao, Hong Kong, China, The Philippines, Japan, the Pacific and back via California and Central America. The original watercolors from the voyage were exhibited in London in 1866 and at an exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1868, just a year before his death in Berlin.

Oil on canvas (370 260 mm). In later gilt carved wood frame. Inscribed "Hong Kong" lower left.