GEORGE CHINNERY (BRITISH 1774-1852) Lot n° 21

NEAR THE BARRIER titled and dated near the Barrier / febry 24/1836 upper right; annotated indistinctly upper left pencil, pen and brown ink 19 x 27.5cm; 7 1/2 x 10 3/4in 38.5 x 46.5cm; 15 1/4 x 18 1/4in (framed) Property from a Private Collection Provenance: Thomas Agnew & Sons, London Gerald Palmer, Newbury (purchased from the above; Gerald Palmer was a Captain in the Royal Artillery, MP for Winchester, Commissioner for the Forestry Commission, writer and translator; he formed the Eling rural estate, comprising some 5000 acres near Newbury, which he left in trust on his death in 1984) Bequeathed from the above to the late husband of the present owner Constructed in 1573, the Barrier was the border wall on the isthmus that separated Macau peninsula from mainland China. In August 1840, four years after Chinnery sketched the present work, the Battle of the Barrier between the Chinese and the British broke out. It was sparked by the kidnap of Reverend Vincent Stanton while swimming at Casilha Bay in Macau which caused uproar in the British community. The ensuing rout of the Chinese by the British was a defining moment during the first Opium Wars (1839-1842). _x000D_ _x000D_