William Alexander was an English draftsman and watercolorist. He was admitted to the Royal Academy at age 17. From 1792 to 1794 he accompanied Lord George Macartney’s official embassy on behalf of the British government to Beijing, where he documented the visit and made drawings of the Chinese court. In 1802 he was named professor of drawing at the Royal Military School, and later served as curator of drawings and prints at the British Museum. Today his watercolors of China are in museums in Manchester, England and Dublin, Ireland.<\/p>\n
The prints were engraved after William Alexander by various engravers: William Lowry engraved the view of the Palace of Yuen-Min-Yuen, James Heath the scene from a Chinese play, and J. Pass the picture of the military post.<\/p>\n
References:<\/p>\n
“A Chinese Military Post.”. British Government Art Collection.<\/em> 2005. http:\/\/www.gac.culture.gov.uk\/search\/Object.asp?object_key=23477 (8 February 2006).<\/p>\n “A Front View of the Hall of Audience at the Palace of Yuen-Min-Yuen.” British Government Art Collection.<\/em> 2005. http:\/\/www.gac.culture.gov.uk\/search\/Object.asp?object_key=11308 (8 February 2006).<\/p>\n “A Scene in an Historical Play exhibited on the Chinese Stage.” British Government Art Collection.<\/em> 2005. http:\/\/www.gac.culture.gov.uk\/search\/Object.asp?object_key=22730 (8 February 2006).<\/p>\n Benezit, E. Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs. <\/em> France: Librarie Gr\u00fcnd, 1966. Vol. 1, p. 94,<\/p>\n “Series 62: Papers concerning publication of the account of Lord Macartney’s Embassy to China, ca 1797.” State Library of New South Wales.<\/em> 18 August 2005. (8 February 2006).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sir George Leonard Staunton (1737-1801) (author) Three engravings after drawings by William Alexander, who accompanied the first British Embassy to China in 1792-94. They were published in Sir George Staunton’s two-volume chronicle of the expedition, which remains an important early account of Western contact with China. Staunton served as secretary of a delegation led by nLord George Macartney (1737-1806), a British earl, nfor the promotion of science and commerce with China. The engraved illustrations for Staunton’s work were selected and arranged by the eminent explorer and naturalist Sir Joseph Banks. The British Government Art Collection has these three prints and others from the series in its collection, and states that they were printed by George Nicol on April 12, 1796, for the books, which were published in 1797. All three prints may be viewed on their web site (see References below). An Authentic Account… <\/strong> was republished in facsimile in four volumes by W. Bulmer & Co., London, in 2001.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":11527,"template":"","meta":{"wds_primary_product_brand":0,"wds_primary_product_cat":0,"footnotes":""},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[6770,961],"product_tag":[195,3933,1128,3930,3932,2723,585,124,572,3928,3934,3935,1512,3929,687,1310,1589,1281,1041,868,93,2227,2163,162,864,2428,709,2933,1191,3931],"class_list":{"0":"post-11525","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-asia-middle-east-maps-views","7":"product_cat-ethnographic-worlds-peoples","8":"product_tag-18th-century","9":"product_tag-account","10":"product_tag-alexander","11":"product_tag-audience","12":"product_tag-authentic","13":"product_tag-banks","14":"product_tag-britain","15":"product_tag-british","16":"product_tag-china","17":"product_tag-chinese","18":"product_tag-embassy","19":"product_tag-emperor","20":"product_tag-engraving","21":"product_tag-front","22":"product_tag-great","23":"product_tag-hall","24":"product_tag-historical","25":"product_tag-joseph","26":"product_tag-king","27":"product_tag-landscape","28":"product_tag-military","29":"product_tag-palace","30":"product_tag-play","31":"product_tag-post","32":"product_tag-scene","33":"product_tag-stage","34":"product_tag-view","35":"product_tag-vista","36":"product_tag-william","37":"product_tag-yuen-min-yuen","38":"post","39":"post-with-thumbnail","40":"post-with-thumbnail-large","42":"first","43":"instock","44":"purchasable","45":"product-type-simple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/11525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/11525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16897,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/11525\/revisions\/16897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=11525"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=11525"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=11525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) (illustration editor)
\nWilliam Alexander (1767-1816) (after)
\nJames Heath, J. Pass, Wilson Lowry (engravers)
\nA Chinese Miliary Post (Plate 17)
\nA Scene in an Historical Play exhibited on the Chinese Stage (Plate 30)
\nA Front View of the Hall of Audience at the Palace of Yuen-Min-Yuen (Plate 22)<\/strong>
\nfrom An Authentic Account of An Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China<\/strong><\/em>
\nG. Nicol, London: 1796
\nHand-colored engravings
\n14 1\/2 x 18 1\/2 inches
\n$550 each<\/p>\n