12 Facts About George Chinnery

George Chinnery was an English painter who spent most of his life in Asia, especially India and southern China.

George Chinnery's father was an exponent of the Gurney system of shorthand; his elder brother William Chinnery owned what is Gilwell Park in Epping Forest in Essex, before he was discovered to have committed large-scale fraud, and fled to Sweden.

George Chinnery returned to London in 1801 without his wife and two infant children.

George Chinnery established himself as a painter there and then in Calcutta, where he became the leading artist of the British community in India.

From 1825 until his death in 1852 George Chinnery based himself in Macau, but until 1832 he made regular visits to Canton.

George Chinnery painted portraits of Chinese and Western merchants, visiting sea-captains, and their families resident in Macau.

George Chinnery painted landscapes, and made numerous drawings of the people of Macau engaged in their daily activities.

George Chinnery died in Macau on 30 May 1852 and is buried in the Old Protestant Cemetery there.

George Chinnery vividly depicted the life of ordinary people and the landscape of the Pearl River Delta at that period.

George Chinnery learnt the Gurney system shorthand from his father and grandfather, and he used his own modified version of this shorthand for jotting quick notes on his pencil sketches.

Substantial collections of George Chinnery's drawings are to be found in London in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum; and in Salem, Mass.

George Chinnery was the basis for the artist Aristotle Quance in the James Clavell novel Tai-Pan.