George Chinnery was born in 1774, and from a very early age showed a promise of his later powers. His parents and grandfather encouraged him, and on leaving school he devoted himself wholly to painting. In 1791, at the age of 17, his Portrait of his Father was accepted and hung in the Royal Academy. The following year he exhibited three portraits, and was beginning to make his name as a miniature painter.
Pasquin, in his A Liberal Critique of the Exhibition for 1794, writes:
Mr Chinnery has some fine portraits, which highly pleased me; among the budding candidates for fame this rising young artist is the most prominent. His progress has been rapid almost beyond example; he has rather adopted a new style of painting, somewhat after the manner of Cosway.
In 1797 Chinnery was invited to Ireland to paint the portraits of Sir Broderick Chinnery and his family. His progress in Dublin was rapid, and in 1800 he assisted in organizing the exhibition in Allen’s Rooms, Dame Street, of the newly-formed Society of Artists of Ireland. To this he sent Satan’s arrival on the confines of light, eight portraits in oils and three in crayons. The following year saw eleven portraits and landscapes from his brush at the exhibition in Parliament House.
This period marks the turning point of Chinnery’s career. The Lansdowne family were his patrons. He had been elected a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy, and success had come to him before his thirties.
He sailed from England on 11 June 1802, and arrived at Madras on 21 December. Five years later he removed to Calcutta where he had a commission to paint Sir Henry Russell, then Chief Justice of Bengal. Now began the second phase of Chinnery’s career. He lived in Calcutta with occasional visits to the courts of native princes for the next 20 years.
During this period he painted portraits of the Earl of Moira, afterwards the Marquees of Hastings, the Earl of Minto, Sir Francis MacNaughton and Sir George Nugent, in addition to many portraits of native princes and soldiers, officials and merchants. Besides these he produced an enormous number of watercolours and sketches of Indian life and scenery.
Chinnery soon moved to Canton and Macao where he passed the rest of his life. He worked with the same industry which characterized him in India, and painted portraits, scenes of Chinese life, and countless watercolours.
During his last years Chinnery had a number of Chinese pupils who painted under his instruction in European style. The chief of these were Protinqua and Lamqua, who, incidentally, sent a Head of an Old Man from Canton to the Royal Academy in 1833. His pupils frequently copied his pictures, as did even Chinnery himself, and this has given rise to a great many difficulties in attribution as he seldom signed oil paintings. He died on 30 May 1852 in his house at Macao.
