Leilões milionários de obras de George Chinnery

No livro de esboços - à dta. - vista parcial da igreja de S. Domingos

Roland Arkell assina esta notícia da edição de 15 de Janeiro de 2022 da "Antiques Trade Gazette".

Dá conta de que em Dezembro de 2021 foi vendido em leilão por 52 mil libras (60.989€)  - cinco vezes mais que o preço base - um livro de esboços/desenhos a lápis e caneta da autoria de George Chinnery. Estavam na posse de uma família de Glasgow (Escócia) há muitos anos e incluíam desenhos feitos pelo pintor inglês em Macau, portanto entre 1825e 1852.

Já em Julho de 2006 a leiloeira Christie's tinha vendido um caderno com mais de 69 folhas de desenhos de Chinnery com mais de 200 ilustrações em aguarela por £290.000 (340.000€). 

Ao longo da vida, quer na Índia quer em Macau, Chinnery produziu milhares de obras. Muitas delas eram apenas estudos (para posteriores aguarelas e óleos sobre tela) outras não chegavam a ser acabadas, nomeadamente retratos, a principal fonte de rendimentos do pintor. Assim, se explica que ele tenha saído de Calcutá para Macau para fugir não só da mulher, mas também dos credores. 

"The sale at Thomas R Callan in Ayr on December 3-4 included this sketchbook by George Chinnery (1774-1852) dated 1838. It includes numerous pencil drawings and watercolours from his time in Macao, China. The English artist arrived in the Portuguese territory on September 29, 1825, after two and a half months on board the ship Hythe. It had sailed from Calcutta, where it was rumoured that Chinnery had left India for the good of his health and he himself claimed he was trying to get away from his wife, but the truth was he was desperately in debt and hoped that on the China coast he would gain refuge from his creditors. As it turned out, the artist never returned to India or Europe. From 1825 until his death in 1852 he remained on the south China coast and was buried in the calm oasis of Macao’s protestant cemetery.

A Chinnery sketchbook featuring more than 200 finished watercolour illustrations of Macao and environs over 69 leaves sold at Christie’s in July 2006 for £290,000 and interest in the artist’s work continues apace.

This sketchbook, estimated at £8000-12,000, featured a smaller number of pencil and ink sketches ranging from small figure and animal studies with Chinnery’s ‘shorthand’ annotations to larger double-page landscape compositions. It came for sale as part of a box of books from a vendor in Glasgow. It is thought to have been in the same family for several generations but had been unappreciated and it required some homework on the auctioneers’ part before an attribution was made and its importance understood.

The sketchbook attracted multiple ‘watchers’ online and eight phone bidders, one of whom was the victor at £52,000."