Minneapolis Institute of Art

Landscape with Ruins

George Chinnery

Date

19th century

Medium

Watercolor over graphite

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Born in London to a wealthy family, George Chinnery spent most of his life far from home. In 1801 he abandoned his young family and soon set sail for Madras (now Chennai) in India, never returning to England. First in Madras and then in Calcutta (Kolkata), he built a reputation as the best artist in the expatriate community. He gained lucrative portrait commissions, but his finances began to unravel, prompting him to relocate to Macau in southern China, which became his base for the rest of his life. The inhabitants and landscapes of Asia fascinated Chinnery. He made countless drawings of people going about their daily lives. Though we have not been able to identify this ruin, we may surmise that Chinnery found romance in its scale, antiquity, and decay. Ireland, Europe

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