1865 c. Japanese Junk, L. Lebreton, ship, folio stone lithograph, hand colour

Louis Le Breton

Stone lithograph 30 x 23 cm

Published by Monrocq. in Paris ca 1865

This example in ORIGINAL HAND COLOUR. Not held by the Royal Museums Greenwich.

Louis Le Breton (1818 in Douarnenez – 1866) was a French painter who specialised in marine paintings.

Le Breton studied medicine and took part in Dumont d'Urville's second voyage aboard the Astrolabe. After the official illustrator of the expedition died, Le Breton replaced him. From 1847 he devoted himself mainly to depicting marine subjects for the French Navy.

A junk (Chinese: 船; pinyin: chuán) is a type of Chinese sailing ship with fully battened sails. Similar junk sails were also adopted by other East Asian countries, most notably Japan, where junks were used as merchant ships to trade goods with China and Southeast Asia. They were found – and in lesser numbers, are still found – throughout Southeast Asia and India, but primarily in China. Historically, a Chinese junk could be one of many types of small coastal or river ships, usually serving as a cargo ship, pleasure boat, or houseboat, but also ranging in size up to large ocean-going vessel. Found more broadly today is a growing number of modern recreational junk-rigged sailboats. There can be significant regional variations in the type of rig or the layout of the vessel; however, they all employ fully battened sails.