18
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Tanka boats adapted as beach dwellings is a 18 by George Chinnery, a Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This drawing shows small boats turned into homes along a shoreline. The boats sit tilted on the sand, their wooden hulls patched with fabric and sticks. You can see laundry hanging from poles and smoke rising from makeshift stoves. Chinnery likely drew this during his time in China. He often sketched daily life, not just grand scenes. These adapted boats show how people made do with what they had. Look up the Victoria and Albert Museum to see more of Chinnery’s work.
The drawing depicts beached Tanka boats adapted as dwellings, part of an album containing 175 sheets of sketches made in China and India. The album was bequeathed in 1928 by James Orange and includes 93 drawings by George Chinnery, who lived in Macau from 1825 until his death in 1852. Chinnery, a British artist, established himself as a prominent portrait painter in Calcutta before relocating to the China coast. His works often featured Western merchants, Chinese hong merchants, and Tanka boatwomen.
Read the full account in the museum source.
George Chinnery (Chinese: 錢納利; 5 January 1774 – 30 May 1852) was an English painter who spent most of his life in Asia, especially India and southern China.
See the richer artist page
