WILLIAM ALEXANDER

(1767-1816)

Boats on the River at Suchow, China

1795

watercolour and pencil on paper,

27.9 x 43.7 cm

inscribed: W. Alexander deli 1795

P.438

Alexander, the son of a Maidstone coachmaker, went to London to study landscape drawing under Julius Caesar Ibbetson (1759-1817) and PARS. Following a recommendation from Ibbetson, Alexander went to China in 1792 as an artist attached to the embassy of Lord Macartney (1737-1806). The purpose of the visit was to protect British trade and protest against conditions of East India Company merchants in Canton. He returned in 1794 with many drawings, some of the first authentic views of China, continuing to produce more on his return to England. This drawing was among those chosen to illustrate an account of the embassy by Sir George Staunton (1781-1859) which was published in 1797. He made very good use of the voyage and published the Costume of China based on his observations.

In 1808 Alexander was appointed Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, which now houses many examples of his work, including another version of this subject, signed and dated 1796.

EJ/CB

PROVENANCE: Sir Osbert Sitwell, Bart., C.H.; F.R. Meatyard; purchased by Gallery, December 1962.

EXHIBITIONS: English Watercolours from The Cecil Higgins Art Gallery Bedford, Reading, Reading Art Gallery, 1965, no.1; Watercolours from Bedford, Norwich, Norwich Castle Museum, 1965, no.2; Canaletto & England, Birmingham, Birmingham City Museum & Art Gallery, 1993-4, no.99, p.162.

REFERENCES: Engraved by Byrne in Sir G. Staunton, An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China, 1797, pl.40.

Extract taken from Watercolours and Drawings, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery by Evelyn Joll.

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