Peter Murray recounts the ill-starred diplomatic mission to China, in 1792, led by Antrim-born George Macartney
The impressively mounted British embassy to China, in 1792, was an event in which diplomacy and disappoint ment played equal roles. Two cultures, Chinese Confucianism and British mercantile, clashed, with long-term consequences that are still felt today. Interwoven into the story are a number of Irish strands, not the least being that the leader of the embassy, George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney (1737-1806), was from Ballymoney in Co Antrim (Fig 2). The portrait painter accompanying the group was Thomas Hickey, who had studied under Robert West at the 2 Dublin Society Drawing Schools. The second artist, William Alexander (1767-1816), was a graduate of the Royal Academy Schools in London. Although Hickey was the senior artist, the drawings that Alexander produced in China are so well known that his name is inextricably linked with the embassy (Figs 1&3). Writing in the Dictionary of National Biography, Richard Garnett put it unequivocally: ‘All the drawings illustrative of the expedition were made by him, in consequence, as it is stated, of the incompetence of his nominal superior.’ Born at Maidstone in Kent in 1767, Alexander had been apprenticed to Julius Caesar Ibbetson. His trip to China came about through the recommendation of Ibbetson, who in 1788 had accompanied an earlier and abortive embassy to China, led by Charles Cathcart.
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As Irish Design 2015 is launched worldwide, we republish here Jennifer Goff’s assessment of the legacy of internationally acclaimed arch Modernist Eileen Gray