George Chinnery

George Chinnery was born in London on the 7th January 1774. His grandfather, the calligrapher William Chinnery Snr., was the author of Writing and Drawing Made Easy, Amusing and Instructive (London, 1750) and his father, William Chinnery Jnr., was also a writing master and exhibited portraits at the Free Society of Artists. From an early age, George showed enormous talent as a portrait painter and entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1792. By 1795 he had exhibited twenty portraits at the Royal Academy. Towards the end of 1795 he moved to Dublin, where he married, and in 1802 he returned to London with his family. He soon boarded a ship to India, where during a stay of over 20 years, he prospered as a portrait painter and made many observant, sympathetic drawings of Indian life and scenery. He then traveled to Macao where he painted English nabobs and Chinese officials. He employed Chinese assistants and copyists and made thousands of further drawings of his foreign encounters. He died in Macao on the 30th May 1852.