{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O756180"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O756180/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2024NX8292/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2024NX8292/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2024NX8292","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O756180/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O756180","accessionNumber":"E.1685-1928","objectType":"Drawing","titles":[{"title":"The Misericordia church and tower, Macau","type":""}],"summaryDescription":"A drawing of the gabled entrance and stone tower of Santa Casa da Misericordia, in Leal Senado Square, Macau. (The façade was subsequently rebuilt in a neo-baroque style.) For a view of these buildings from the other end of the street see E.2136-1921.","physicalDescription":"A drawing from a volume containing 93 sheets of sketches made in Macau and its vicinity","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"George Chinnery","id":"A7622"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"paper","id":"AAT14109"},{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"}],"techniques":[{"text":"drawing","id":"AAT54196"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Pen and ink drawing on paper","categories":[{"text":"Drawings","id":"THES48966"},{"text":"Topography","id":"THES252988"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2024NX8292"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLC","id":"THES49171"},"free":"","case":"92","shelf":"D","box":"13"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"drawing","id":"x32498"}],[{"text":"drawing","id":"AAT33973"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Macau","id":"x35634"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"29/09/1825 - 30/05/1852","earliest":"1825-09-29","latest":"1852-05-30"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Bequeathed by James Orange","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"6.125","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"9.4375","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"6.125","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"9.4375","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from <u>Victoria & Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1928. </u> London: HMSO, 1929 ","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Provenance: bequeathed in 1928 by  James Orange, as part of an album  containing 93 drawings by George  Chinnery.\r\n\tGeorge Chinnery (1774-1852) was  born in London, the son of a ‘writing  master’ and shorthand-writer.  He  exhibited miniature portraits at the  Royal Academy from 1791 to 1795, and  enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools  in 1792.  In 1796 he moved to Dublin,  where he enjoyed some success and  began to paint landscapes and large  portraits in oils.  \r\n\tIn 1801 he returned from Ireland to  London, prompted perhaps by the  abolition of the Irish Parliament and the  exodus of many potential patrons.\r\n\r\n\tIn June 1802 Chinnery sailed to  Madras (Chennai), where his brother  was employed by the East India  Company; his Irish wife followed him  sixteen years later.  Settling in Calcutta  (Kolkata) in 1812 he established  himself as the pre-eminent Western  artist in British India.  \r\n\tIn Calcutta Chinnery received many  lucrative portrait commissions, both  public and private, yet he fell  increasingly – and for reasons which  remain unclear – into debt.  He  decamped briefly to the Danish  settlement of Serampur, where British  civil law did not apply.  To escape his  creditors he sailed finally to the China  coast in 1825, making his home in the  Portuguese enclave of Macau.\r\n\r\n\tMacau was at this time frequented by  European and North American  merchants.  Their trade with China was  conducted entirely through the port of  Canton (Guangzhou) some seventy  miles away, but they were obliged to  leave Canton at the end of the trading  season; at this point they would go to  Macau, where their families were  permitted to live throughout the year.   Thus Chinnery was able to join a  prosperous and cosmopolitan  community.\r\n\r\n\tMacau remained his home until his  death there in 1852 (with excursions to  Canton between 1825 and 1832, and  to Hong Kong in 1846).  His sitters  included not only the Westerners but  the Chinese ‘hong merchants’ and the  Tanka boatwomen (included in this  drawing) who piloted the Westerners in  their small craft.  He also developed  his drawing skills, which he had  exercised earlier in India but which  now became his primary occupation;  he annotated his sketches with the  Gurney system of shorthand which he  no doubt learned from his father.  He  set out every morning (he claimed) in  search of fresh compositions to be  sketched before breakfast.\r\n\t  \r\n\tChinnery never freed himself from  debt, living in his latter years on the  charity of his landlord.  But he was  greatly esteemed by his  contemporaries for his dinner-table wit,  his longevity and his unfailing skill as a  draughtsman, which inspired many  followers and imitators.\r\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"A drawing by George Chinnery of the Misericordia church and tower, Macau","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Victoria & Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1928. </u> London: HMSO, 1929"}],"production":"The sketches in the album containing this drawing were drawn from nature in Macau and its vicinity","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"China","id":"x29398"},{"text":"Macau","id":"x35634"},{"text":"Macau","id":"x35634"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"church","id":"AAT7466"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.1685-1928"],"accessionNumberNum":"1685","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1928,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-12-18","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-30","availableToBook":false}}