Period:Unknown Production date:1830
Materials:paper
Technique:mezzotint, etching,
Dimensions:Height: 630 millimetres Width: 468 millimetres
Description:
Portrait; seated in front of a table with a large open book on stand, and a closed book with bookmark between pages; full-length to left, facing front, looking towards right; wearing a dark ornate gown over coat, white collar and necktie; holding a large sheet of paper lettered with “Collegium Anglo senicum MDCCCXVIII” and “Anglo Chinese College”; his right arm resting on a book on a table, at which an elderly Chinese man is seated, writing on paper with a brush, watched by a young Chinese man, holding a paper lettered with Chinese script; college cap and book lettered “Chinese Dictionary” on table; globe on stand in foreground to left; after Chinnery. 1830 Mezzotint and etching
IMG
![图片[1]-print BM-1882-0513.387-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Unknown/43/mid_00671979_001.jpg)
Comments:This print is documented in the biography of Morrison by his widow, II pp.424-7. A letter to Morrison dated Canton 9 February 1829 reads:’Mr Chinnery has just finished a most excellent picture of Dr Morrison attended by two Chinese teachers. If Dr Morrison will consent to sacrifice for the space of one year the gratification which he must necessarily derive from the possession of this portrait, to the wishes of his friends, who are desirous of preserving their recollection of an old acquaintance, and who can unite, to the memory of the most distinguished Chinese scholar of the age, their feelings towards him as a kind and aimiable member of this society; it is proposed to request him to allow this picture to be sent to England in the Orwell, for the purpose of obtaining from it the most perfect mezzotinto engraving that can be taken.The celebrated artist to whom they are indebted for this portrait of Dr Morrison has expressed his readiness to undertake the commission of procuring the engraving.Signed by every member of the Company’s Factory’.On the next day Morrison thanked them and agreed to their request, and added ‘instead of accepting more than a few copies of the engraving, I would resign those you suggested appropriating to me to Mr Chinnery’s disposal’. In a later letter dated 24 February to his close friend Sir George Staunton he included the information that ‘the impressions of the picture to be engraved after the subscribers have each taken one, are to be sold for the benefit of the College’ (this was the training school in Chinese that they had been instrumental in founding in Malacca). A footnote added by the widow reveals that the charge by Turner for engraving the plate was 300 guineas, and that the portrait itself was then (1839) in her possession. It is not clear who commissioned or paid for the painting, but it seems most likely that it was a gift from the members of the East India Company’s Factory in Canton to Morrison. Its present whereabout are not known.
Materials:paper
Technique:mezzotint, etching,
Dimensions:Height: 630 millimetres Width: 468 millimetres
Description:
Portrait; seated in front of a table with a large open book on stand, and a closed book with bookmark between pages; full-length to left, facing front, looking towards right; wearing a dark ornate gown over coat, white collar and necktie; holding a large sheet of paper lettered with “Collegium Anglo senicum MDCCCXVIII” and “Anglo Chinese College”; his right arm resting on a book on a table, at which an elderly Chinese man is seated, writing on paper with a brush, watched by a young Chinese man, holding a paper lettered with Chinese script; college cap and book lettered “Chinese Dictionary” on table; globe on stand in foreground to left; after Chinnery. 1830 Mezzotint and etching
IMG
Comments:This print is documented in the biography of Morrison by his widow, II pp.424-7. A letter to Morrison dated Canton 9 February 1829 reads:’Mr Chinnery has just finished a most excellent picture of Dr Morrison attended by two Chinese teachers. If Dr Morrison will consent to sacrifice for the space of one year the gratification which he must necessarily derive from the possession of this portrait, to the wishes of his friends, who are desirous of preserving their recollection of an old acquaintance, and who can unite, to the memory of the most distinguished Chinese scholar of the age, their feelings towards him as a kind and aimiable member of this society; it is proposed to request him to allow this picture to be sent to England in the Orwell, for the purpose of obtaining from it the most perfect mezzotinto engraving that can be taken.The celebrated artist to whom they are indebted for this portrait of Dr Morrison has expressed his readiness to undertake the commission of procuring the engraving.Signed by every member of the Company’s Factory’.On the next day Morrison thanked them and agreed to their request, and added ‘instead of accepting more than a few copies of the engraving, I would resign those you suggested appropriating to me to Mr Chinnery’s disposal’. In a later letter dated 24 February to his close friend Sir George Staunton he included the information that ‘the impressions of the picture to be engraved after the subscribers have each taken one, are to be sold for the benefit of the College’ (this was the training school in Chinese that they had been instrumental in founding in Malacca). A footnote added by the widow reveals that the charge by Turner for engraving the plate was 300 guineas, and that the portrait itself was then (1839) in her possession. It is not clear who commissioned or paid for the painting, but it seems most likely that it was a gift from the members of the East India Company’s Factory in Canton to Morrison. Its present whereabout are not known.
© Copyright
The copyright of the article belongs to the author, please keep the original link for reprinting.
THE END
