George Chinnery

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George Chinnery (Chinese name: 錢納利; January 5, 1774 – May 30, 1852) was an English painter who spent most of his life in Asia, especially India and southern China.

An Indian Herdsman On A Bank, Cattle Watering In A River Below, Date unknown, Private collection.

Chinnery was born in London and after training in England became a famous portrait painter in Ireland by 1802. He married his wife Marianne on 19th April, 1799 in Dublin. His father owned several trading ships and his elder brother, William Chinnery, owned what is now Gilwell Park.

Chinnery ran into debt and went to India in 1802 on a ship named Gilwell. He there re-established himself as a painter, but debt prompted a move again in 1825, when he went to southern China. While in China, he mentored Lam Qua, who eventually became a renowned medical portrait painter. He travelled around the Pearl River Delta, between Macau and Canton (now Guangzhou). He had been to Hong Kong after the British founded the city, and subsequently fell ill. He died in Macau in 1852 and is buried in the Old Protestant Cemetery there.

George Chinnery 1774-1852, Portrait of Catherine Sherson, born Taylor, Dated 1802 or 1803, Watercolour on ivory V&A Museum no. P.27-1922^[1] Victoria and Albert Museum, London

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[edit] Works

Other than artistic value, his paintings are historically valuable as he was the only western painter in South China between the early and mid 19th Century. He presented the life of common people and landscape of the Pearl River delta at that period. Chinnery left sketches for creation of other paintings. He had learnt shorthand from his grandfather and he used his modified shorthand for jotting quick notes on sketches.

[edit] Legacy

• The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation has a collection of Chinnery's works because of his connection to Hong Kong. The bank together with Hong Kong Museum of History and Hong Kong Museum of Art jointly held an exhibition in the museum of history from 6th June to 29th August 2005.

[edit] See also

• Mandy Boursicot

[edit] References

• Impressions of the East - The Art of George Chinnery, Hong Kong Museum of History, 2005