A River In Ceylon - George Chinnery - Vintage Orientalist Painting of India

"A River In Ceylon a Vintage Orientalist Painting of India by George Chinnery" George Chinnery was an English painter who spent most of his life in Asia, especially India and southern China. Chinnery was born in London, where he studied at the Royal Academy Schools. 

George Chinnery moved in 1796 to Ireland, where he enjoyed some success as an artist, and married Marianne (née Vigne) on 19 April 1799 in Dublin.

Other than artistic value, his paintings are historically valuable as he was the only western painter resident in South China between the early and mid 19th century. He vividly depicted the life of ordinary people and the landscape of the Pearl River Delta at that period. Among the subjects of his portraits are the Scottish opium traders William Jardine and James Matheson as well as the diarist Harriet Low. George Chinnery learnt the Gurney system shorthand from his father and grandfather (both writing-masters), and he used his own modified version of this shorthand for jotting quick notes on his pencil sketches.

George Chinnery was an English painter who spent most of his life in Asia, especially India and southern China. Chinnery returned to London in 1801 without his wife and two infant children.

In 1802 he sailed to Madras (Chennai) on the ship Gilwell. He established himself as a painter there and then in Calcutta (Kolkata), where he became the leading artist of the British community in India.

Other than artistic value, his paintings are historically valuable as he was the only western painter resident in South China between the early and mid 19th century. He vividly depicted the life of ordinary people and the landscape of the Pearl River Delta at that period.