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Charles Wirgman (1832-1891), a British artist based in Japan, published and drew cartoons for the humor magazine Japan Punch. Wirgman covered the Second Opium War for The Illustrated London News. His series of watercolors (scroll right) presents a sympathetic, close-up view of Chinese soldiers—in particular the Manchu bannermen, the cavalry forces of the Qing army.



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Scroll right to view Charles Wirgman's
Watercolor Series Depicting Tartar
Cavalry & Chinese Soldiers During
the Second Opium War (1860)

Reproduced in The Cosmopolitan,
vol. xvii (October 1894)

images: Anne S.K. Brown Military
Collection, Brown University Libraries
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MIT Visualizing CulturesMIT Visualizing Cultures Left:
“18 September 1860 Ho ko chisang”

 [wirgman_1860-09-18_ho-ko]

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MIT Visualizing CulturesMIT Visualizing CulturesLeft:
“The first entrenchment (at Taku):
12 August 1860”

 [wirgman_1860-08-12_taku]

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MIT Visualizing CulturesMIT Visualizing CulturesLeft:
“Tartar Cavalry” (1860)

 [wirgman_1860-04_cavalry]

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MIT Visualizing CulturesMIT Visualizing CulturesLeft:
“Chinese Sentry” (1860)

 [wirgman_1860-03_sentry]

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“Tartar Cavalry near Peking” (1860)

 [wirgman_1860-06_peking]

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MIT Visualizing CulturesMIT Visualizing CulturesLeft:
“Tartar Cavalry” (1860)

 [wirgman_1860-07_cavalry]

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MIT Visualizing CulturesMIT Visualizing CulturesLeft:
“Chinese Soldier” (1860)

 [wirgman_1860-05_soldier]

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