From Macao to London— George Chinnery’s Works in the V&A Museum

English artist George Chinnery spent the last 27 years of his life in Macao. His death in 1852 coincided with the initiation in London of what became known as the Victoria and Albert Museum or V&A. Today the V&A holds perhaps the largest public collection of Chinnery’s drawings. The artist’s reputation reached its apogee in the 1920s. Subsequently the V&A’s collection of his drawings — which largely depict the inhabitants and locations of Macao, as well as scenes of India and Canton — has received little exposure or publicity. Its range and scope are illustrated and discussed here, as are differences in Chinnery’s approach to drawing and to watercolour, and the appreciation of his art in recent times.