William Alexander (1767–1816) was the only English artist of the late eighteenth century to penetrate the interior of China, a journey that would define his career and secure his reputation. Born in Maidstone, Kent, the son of a coachbuilder, he showed early artistic talent and studied in London, possibly under Julius Caesar Ibbetson, before entering the Royal Academy Schools.
In 1792 Alexander joined the British embassy of Lord Macartney to China as junior draughtsman. Although the diplomatic mission failed to establish lasting trade relations with the Qianlong Emperor, it provided Alexander with extraordinary first-hand material. At a time when Chinoiserie captivated Europe, his detailed watercolours of Chinese landscapes, architecture and daily life attracted wide acclaim. Many were engraved for the official account of the embassy and for publications such as View of the Headlands, Islands, etc. (1798) and John Barrow’s A Voyage to Cochin China (1806).
Back in England, Alexander refined his Chinese sketches into exhibition pieces for the Royal Academy and worked within the vibrant watercolour circle around Dr Monro, alongside artists such as Thomas Girtin. In 1802 he became Professor of Landscape Drawing at the Royal Military Academy in Great Marlow.
In 1808 he resigned this post to become one of the first curators at the British Museum, serving as Keeper of Prints and Drawings and assistant librarian. There he began compiling the museum’s first inventory of prints and drawings and illustrated important antiquities from the Townley collection. A member of the Society of Antiquaries, Alexander later turned increasingly to picturesque landscapes and studies of classical objects.
He died in 1816 in Maidstone, aged forty-nine. Today, his work is held in major public collections including the British Library, Tate and the Victoria and Albert Museum, and remains an invaluable visual record of late eighteenth-century China as seen through British eyes.
