拍品專文
The dates inscribed in the book range from February 17th to August 7th 1822, though July is the only other month recorded. This means that the drawing must have been done during Chinnery's self-imposed exile from Calcutta to Serampore to escape his debts. Serampore is fifteen miles up the River Hooghly from Calcutta and at that time belonged to Denmark and was beyond the reach of British civil law. Chinnery moved there in June 1821 and may have been back in Calcutta by November 1822 when he was commissioned to paint a portrait of Sir Francis Workman Macnaghten, though the commission could have been made while the artist was still at Serampore as happened on other occasions (see P. Conner, George Chinnery 1774-1825, Artist of India and the China Coast, 1993, p.115, and, for the artist's drawings in Bengal and his flight to Serampore, chaps. 9 and 11).
Chinnery's shorthand followed the system of Thomas Gurney developed in the 1720s; the aritst's father William Chinnery had used this system to write out the New Testament and the Book of Psalms, being listed as a practioner in the 1767 edition of Gurney's Brachygraphy: or Short Writing made Easy. Chinnery used this shorthand to date some of his drawings, make comments on the accuracy of his sketches, such as 'figure right size', to specify textures or materials, for instance 'rock and sand', to remind himself of certain details such as 'the whole of the right arm and shoulder bare - the mark round the neck is a necklace'. There are also more general observations: 'The body of the anchor is formed of stones which are held tight by the sticks and rope', and 'the grace and taste and lightness of the figure was as perfect as any thing I ever saw'. By one drawing he wrote 'This would make the best design for a picture', and he also used symbols to the same effect, a plus sign '+' for a correct drawing, to be used, and a diagonal cross 'x' for an unsatisfactory drawing (these symbols, together with the letter 'D', have been misidentified by the anonymous transcriber of Chinnery's shorthand inside the front cover as standing for 'light', 'half tint' and 'shade'; see Connor, op. cit., p. 144, and, for Chinnery's shorthand, pp. 138-40 and Appendix II.
Given this system of pluses and minuses it would follow that one should be able to trace finished works in which Chinnery had used his sketches, but this has not proved to be the case, perhaps because his return to Calcutta was marked by a not altogther effective campaign to pay off his debts by finishing off outstanding portraits which culminated in a further flight to permanent exile in China. Only one known painting at least reunites many of the elements found in Chinnery's drawing of cows, vessels and figures in front of a thatched hut on page 40 verso, the Bengal Village Scene with Cattle in a private collection (sold Christie's 27 March 1981, lot 93; repr. Connor, op. cit., colour pl. 39).
The numbering of the sheets in the sketchbook runs from 40 to 57. There are a few unnumbered sheets at the beginning and the end but not enough to account for the numbers up to 39
Chinnery's shorthand followed the system of Thomas Gurney developed in the 1720s; the aritst's father William Chinnery had used this system to write out the New Testament and the Book of Psalms, being listed as a practioner in the 1767 edition of Gurney's Brachygraphy: or Short Writing made Easy. Chinnery used this shorthand to date some of his drawings, make comments on the accuracy of his sketches, such as 'figure right size', to specify textures or materials, for instance 'rock and sand', to remind himself of certain details such as 'the whole of the right arm and shoulder bare - the mark round the neck is a necklace'. There are also more general observations: 'The body of the anchor is formed of stones which are held tight by the sticks and rope', and 'the grace and taste and lightness of the figure was as perfect as any thing I ever saw'. By one drawing he wrote 'This would make the best design for a picture', and he also used symbols to the same effect, a plus sign '+' for a correct drawing, to be used, and a diagonal cross 'x' for an unsatisfactory drawing (these symbols, together with the letter 'D', have been misidentified by the anonymous transcriber of Chinnery's shorthand inside the front cover as standing for 'light', 'half tint' and 'shade'; see Connor, op. cit., p. 144, and, for Chinnery's shorthand, pp. 138-40 and Appendix II.
Given this system of pluses and minuses it would follow that one should be able to trace finished works in which Chinnery had used his sketches, but this has not proved to be the case, perhaps because his return to Calcutta was marked by a not altogther effective campaign to pay off his debts by finishing off outstanding portraits which culminated in a further flight to permanent exile in China. Only one known painting at least reunites many of the elements found in Chinnery's drawing of cows, vessels and figures in front of a thatched hut on page 40 verso, the Bengal Village Scene with Cattle in a private collection (sold Christie's 27 March 1981, lot 93; repr. Connor, op. cit., colour pl. 39).
The numbering of the sheets in the sketchbook runs from 40 to 57. There are a few unnumbered sheets at the beginning and the end but not enough to account for the numbers up to 39