William Alexander (1767-1816) [Aw434]
WINCHESTER COLLEGE, CHAPEL TOWER AND FROMOND’S CHANTRY, c. 1800
Watercolour over pencil (H. 20 cm, W. 16 cm)
William Alexander is best known for his watercolours of China, an example of which is in the College’s collection (Aw2). He accompanied the Macartney Embassy, Britain’s first diplomatic mission to China, as their official draughtsman from 1792 to 1794. The resulting watercolours were engraved for Sir George Staunton’s official account of the embassy published in 1797, and in various books by Alexander himself, such as The Costume of China (1805) and Picturesque Representations of the Dress and Manners of the Chinese (1814).
This watercolour of Winchester College shows the same delicacy, attention to detail, and harmonious colour that are notable in Alexander’s images of China. The view is taken from the entrance to the water meadows on the east side of the College, looking towards the Chapel. In the foreground is a water mill, still in existence but much altered today. Leaning from one of the windows, a man wearing a hat speaks to a horseman below. The medieval buildings in the background—the south east corner of the cloister, Fromond’s Chantry, and the chapel tower—remain familiar over two hundred years later.
Later in his career, Alexander became a museum curator. In 1808 he was appointed as the first Keeper of Prints and Drawings of the British Museum, where he began an inventory of the collection. In 1810, Alexander donated a large number of prints to the Museum, ten of which were topographical views of Hampshire. One of these was an etching after the present watercolour by Joseph Powell (1780–1834), a London-based draughtsman and print maker. Powell became the first president of the New Society of Painters in Water Colours upon its foundation in 1831.
Published: as an engraving by Joseph Powell (1800)
Provenance: Sotheby’s, London, 14 March 1962, lot 52, where purchased by Winchester College