earwigbiscuits: Death and the Chinese, from the C by Heironymus Hess (1799-1850), published 1841. Hess was commissioned to copy the watercolours Emanuel Büchel had made of the Dance of Death mural in Basel (painted around 1440, demolished in 1805). The Chinese Man was not on the original medieval mural, nor was he one of Büchel’s characters, but the first Opium War had started in 1839, the year Hess began the work. The text reads in English, “My opium, it is inspiring, But brings me death by English firing.”

earwigbiscuits:

Death and the Chinese, from the C by Heironymus Hess (1799-1850), published 1841. Hess was commissioned to copy the watercolours Emanuel Büchel had made of the Dance of Death mural in Basel (painted around 1440, demolished in 1805). The Chinese Man was not on the original medieval mural, nor was he one of Büchel’s characters, but the first Opium War had started in 1839, the year Hess began the work. The text reads in English, “My opium, it is inspiring, But brings me death by English firing.”