A pair of rare Chinese genre scenes with woodcarvers and blacksmiths was executed by most famous British artist , who spent his life in Chine. George Chinnery (Chinese: 钱 纳利), born 1774 in London - died in Macau 1852) was an English painter who spent most of his life in Asia, especially India and southern China. For comparison with other identical painting by Chinnery, estimated for sale by Bonhams, London on 7.12.2011, lot.No. 21, see additional photo.

Chinnery was born in London, where he studied at the Royal Academy Schools . He moved to Ireland in 1796, where he enjoyed some success as an artist, and married Marianne on 19 April 1799 in Dublin.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 , where he became the leading artist of the British community in India.By 1813 Chiinery was a freemason, listed as a member of Calcutta´s well-to-do masonic lodge Star in the East. Some of his most famous paintings are of the Indian family of James Kirkpatrick, British Resident to the Nizam of Hyderabad. Mounting debt in 1825 prompted a move to southern China.From 1825 until his death in 1852 Chinnery himself based in Macau, but until 1832 he made regular visits to Canton (now Guangzhou). He painted portraits of Chinese and Western merchants, visiting sea-captains, and their families resident in Macau. His work in oil paint was closely imitated by the Cantonese artist Lam Qua, who himself became a renowned portrait painter. Chinnery also painted landscapes (both in oils and in watercolors), and made numerous drawings of the people of Macau engaged in their daily activities.In 1846 he made a six-month visit to Hong Kong, where he suffered from ill health but made detailed studies of the newly founded colony. He died on May 30 in Macau in 1852 and is buried in the Old Protestant Cemetery there.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 trader William Jardine.Substantial collections of Chinnery´s drawings are to be found in London at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum,. And in Salem, Mass., at the Peabody Essex Museum. Other notable groups are held at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, UK, the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Museum of Macau, and the Macau Museum of Art, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation can claim to have the collection of outstanding corporate Chinnery´s works. Loan exhibitions of his pictures have been held recently at Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon (1995); Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Tokyo (1996), Hong Kong Museum of History, Hong Kong (2005), and Macau Museum (2010).

Literature: "Impressions of the East - The Art of George Chinnery", Hong Kong Museum of History, 2005;Hutcheon, Robin, "Chinnery, the man and the legend," South China Morning Post Ltd, Hong Kong, 1975, with a chapter on Chinnery´s shorthand by Geoffrey W. Bonsall;Hutcheon, Robin, "Chinnery", Formasia Ltd, Hong Kong, 1989.

Inscription: both unsigned

Technique: each oil on canvas. Original frames .

Measurements: each unframed 8 1/4 " x 10 2/3 " (21x 27 cm); framed w 9 1/2 " x h 11 1/2 " (24 x 29 cm)

Condition: in good condition, slightly cracks due to age