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THE PROPERTY OF A LADY (LOTS 120-135) The present gathering of works on paper from the collection of a descendant of Chinnery's doctor in Macao, Thomas Boswall Watson, comprises works by Chinnery and Watson. The Chinnery sketches include both Bengal subjects from his Indian sojourn of 1802-1825 (see lots 163, 164, 166, and 167) and Chinese sketches, mostly taken in and around Macao, from 1825-1852. The works by Watson, views taken at Macao, Canton and Hong Kong. Chinnery had arrived in Macao from India in September 1825. With excursions to Canton in the early years after his arrival (see lots 131-132) and one six-month visit to Hong Kong in 1846, Macao became Chinnery's home (he lived just behind the Sao Lourençao Church, towards the end of the peninsula, at 8 rua de Ignacia Baptista) until his death, aged 78, in 1852. Living in a very small community of non-Chinese on the China Coast, he only survived through the generous patronage of the businessmen William Jardine and James Matheson, and the support of a handful of traders, tea tasters, doctors, missionaries and their families. For a rare intact Macao sketchbook (1836-37 and including over 200 sketches), from the collection of John Russell Reeves (1804-1877), East India Company Assistant Inspector of Teas at Canton, see Christie's, London, 13 July 2006, lot 100 (£332,800.) 'As James Orange wrote, "Chinnery's heart was in sketching from nature", and in doing so almost every morning in Macau, he has left an unique record of the city's buildings, scenery, groups of Chinese people, boats and animals.' Geoffrey Bonsall, 'George Chinnery's Views of Macau', in Arts of Asia, Jan.-Feb. 1986, vol.16, no.1, pp.89-92).

George Chinnery (1774-1852)

Fisherman on the Pearl River at sunset, a pagoda beyond

Details

George Chinnery (1774-1852)
Fisherman on the Pearl River at sunset, a pagoda beyond
pen and sepia ink and watercolour with scratching out on paper
5 x 8in. (12.6 x 20.3cm.)

Provenance

Thomas Boswall Watson, and thence by descent to the present owner.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.

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