This event has ended
This exhibition is based on the distinctive collections of export paintings and works from the "Chinnery School" held by the Macao Museum of Art (under the Cultural Affairs Bureau) and the Guangdong Museum. In collaboration with the Hong Kong Museum of Art (under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department), over 300 exhibits have been meticulously selected. The exhibition explores the dialogue and reconciliation of Sino-Western visual arts created jointly by Chinese and foreign painters in the Pearl River Delta region during the 18th and 19th centuries from three dimensions: painting artistry, technique, and materials.
Coinciding with the 250th anniversary of George Chinnery's birth, the exhibition specially selects over a hundred paintings by Chinnery—who had deep ties to Macao—and his students or those influenced by him. This comprehensive display showcases Chinnery's profound influence in South China during this period and highlights Macao's crucial role as a window for East-West cultural encounters. Through various painting subjects such as plants, ships, landscapes, portraits, and genre scenes, the exhibition interprets the dialogue embodied in Chinese and Western painting techniques. Furthermore, the use of Sino-Western painting materials like oil, watercolor, gouache, sketch, and printmaking reveals their mutual influence.
British painter George Chinnery (1774–1852) is regarded as the most influential Western painter in the East during the 19th century. This section features works by Chinnery, Western expatriates, Macanese, and a group of Chinese painters (including export painters like Lam Qua).
During the 18th and 19th centuries, with the deepening of Sino-Western cultural exchange, the techniques of Chinese and Western painting continuously adapted and integrated along the South China coast. This section interprets the dialogue and adaptation reflected in Sino-Western painting techniques through different subjects: botanical painting, ship painting, landscape painting, portraiture, and genre painting.
This section provides a panoramic overview of the regulation and fusion of Sino-Western painting materials through visual artworks such as oil paintings, watercolors, gouaches, sketches, and prints, alongside the painting materials themselves.
Culture & Heritage Exhibitions
Macao Communications Museum
