Biography for George Chinnery

Employment

After studying at the Royal Academy Schools, Chinnery began to exhibit there in 1791. In 1796 he moved to Dublin in order to teach drawing and later married there. In 1802, however, he decided to make radical changes to his life and travelled to India and by 1807 was living in Calcutta. In 1825, in order to avoid mounting debts and his wife who was in hot pursuit of him, he journeyed to Macao. It was here and in nearby Hong Kong and the area round about including Canton, that he was to spend the rest of his life. Chinnery made a very large number of drawings and watercolours of the China coast and of all the sights and sensations of the country which proved endlessly fascinating to him. In them he produced what amounts to an unique drawn record of the life and customs of the people.