Viva Brighton Issue #66 August 2018
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CURATOR’S CITY<br />
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‘The reception of the diplomatique and his suite, at the<br />
Court of Pekin’. Caricature by James Gillray (1792)<br />
© National Portrait Gallery, London<br />
Macartney’s embassy to China as a junior<br />
draughtsman. It is likely that this was Alexander’s<br />
first proper commission.<br />
The journey would define his career as an<br />
artist and there is no doubt that he realised its<br />
commercial potential. Perhaps luckily for him,<br />
the official artist appointed to the embassy,<br />
Thomas Hickey, appears to have produced next<br />
to no work on the journey, giving Alexander<br />
an opportunity to shine. Despite gaining<br />
unprecedented access to inland China, there were<br />
also some disappointments. He was not allowed<br />
to join the ambassador’s party on their trip to<br />
Jehol, north of Beijing, to meet the Emperor.<br />
Instead, he was confined to a building in Beijing,<br />
surrounded by high walls, without permission to<br />
move around freely in the city. He also missed<br />
out on a long journey overland from Hangchow<br />
to Canton, having been told to continue the<br />
journey via the sea route.<br />
The aim of the Macartney embassy was to<br />
negotiate fairer and better trading conditions in<br />
China for the British. Although carefully planned,<br />
it turned out to be a diplomatic failure, with the<br />
embassy hurriedly leaving Beijing months before<br />
they had planned to depart, a fact mercilessly<br />
caricatured by James Gillray. However, over<br />
two thousand sketches of China that Alexander<br />
produced on the two-year journey were a new,<br />
reliable and exciting glimpse into Chinese life,<br />
art, landscape, architecture and customs. Like no<br />
artist before, Alexander shaped the West’s image<br />
of this far-away country.<br />
His images were used in the first official account<br />
of the embassy, written by George Staunton,<br />
and published in 1797. Alexander also published<br />
a number of his own books, mostly illustrated<br />
descriptive volumes documenting Chinese<br />
costume and scenes, featuring full-page handcoloured<br />
engravings after his drawings.<br />
So where do we see Alexander’s art in the Royal<br />
Pavilion? From at least 1815 onward Frederick<br />
Crace used Alexander’s aquatints as inspiration<br />
for a number of decorations in the building.<br />
Examples can be seen on the walls and the<br />
central chandelier of the Music Room, and on the<br />
staircase landings.<br />
Alexandra Loske, Art Historian and Curator, The<br />
Royal Pavilion<br />
Illustration from Alexander’s ‘Picturesque Representations of the Dress and Manners of the Chinese’ (1814)<br />
© Alexandra Loske<br />
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