Urban sketching is not new: Sketcher Fest Edmonds artist connects past with modern sketchers

Few western artists have captured daily life sceneries in Asia in the early 19th century like English artist George Chinnery (1774-1852). The sketches of fishermen, laborers and other civilians in Macau, China, resemble the style of many modern sketchers with simple lines that capture what was happening at that time.

Art professor Mário Linhares presented Chinnery’s works at the third annual Sketcher Fest Edmonds Saturday at Graphite Art Center in downtown Edmonds – as part of the Artist Talk series. The event is dedicated to the art of travel and urban sketching, which was founded by Seattle artist and journalist Gabi Campanario.

Linhares said in an interview with that urban sketching isn’t a new trend as some people think. “Picasso did it, George Chinnery and John William Turner did it,” he said. “I think it’s important to link these artists with what we do because we can learn from their experiences. We don’t see a lot [of talks] going back to understand the past, so I like to bring that [to Sketcher Fest].”

Linhares had spent about 13 months studying the surviving works of Chinnery and the artist’s life at the University of Lisbon in Portugal. He identified the location in some of the churches, such as St. Dominic’s Church and St. Lawrence Church. The details of these churches and streets could still be seen in Macau today.

Linhares said that Chinnery moved to Macau from Dublin, Ireland, in 1825 and lived there for the rest of life. While China had restrictions that prevented westerners from living in the country, the Portuguese had established a close economic relationship with China since the 16th century. This allowed many Europeans and other non-Chinese to live in Macau.

Chinnery rented his home from Portuguese landlords and was commissioned to do various art projects, including portraiture. He also taught art to some students, including Lam Quan, Thomas Watson and Marciano A. Baptista, which suggested that Chinnery may have run a small art school, according to Linhares.

Chinnery also used shorthand in his sketches – a skill he learned from his father – to write in code. Linhares said that this was likely used to protect his work.

“When he passed away, the Macau aristocracy were able to buy some of his sketchbooks, and they belong to museums now,” Linhares said. “But the drawings that were made in loose sheets belong to private collections. They are really hard to find. Some of them are still in sketchbooks and in albums, but we don’t know exactly how many drawings [and] watercolors he did.”

Chinnery moved to Macau for a number of reasons, including fewer artist competition in Asia and escaping from his debtors. Linhares added that Chinnery had lived in India and worked there as a commissioned artist for some time before moving to Macau permanently.

“He enjoyed a really good life, good food, good wine, and he spent all his money on that instead of paying [things] like rent of the house,” Linhares said. “So he was not a brilliant person managing money.”

Seattle sketcher Gail Wong, who attended Linhares’ talk, said that she learned not every artwork that is “attributed” to an artist is actually by that artist, as in the case of Chinnery.

“What Mário is trying to do is to confirm that information – the streets, the location,” Wong said. “You have to verify with several different drawings and styles.”

Wong also said that she needs to date and cite the locations of her sketches like Chinnery. “I don’t always do that,” she said. “I’ll look back at my stuff, and I know what country I did this in, but I don’t know exactly where it was.”

Linhares said that urban sketchers are in a “very, nice moment” because scholars and art collectors in the fine arts world did not value Chinnery’s sketches – only his paintings – until 200 years later.

“I’m also starting to write more about what we are doing to put more value on what we are doing,” Linhares said, referring to modern urban sketching. “And I hope it doesn’t take 200 years for museums to really understand our work.”