William Alexander 1767-1816

Macartney's Embassy entered Peking through this main western gateway first on 21st August 1793, as Sir George Staunton describes '...the arrival of the Embassador was announced by the firing of guns; and the refreshments were made ready for all the gentlemen, at a resting place within the gate.  Over the gate was a watchtower several stories high.  In each storey were port-holes for cannon, painted, as sometimes on the sides of merchant vessels which have none.  Around the gate, on the outside, was a semi-circular wall, with lateral gate, upon the plan of European fortifications, which may be a modern addition.'  (Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China, 1797, Vol.II, p.116).

The gate depicted in the present watercolour was destroyed, along with the walls, in the 1950's, but the bridge in the foreground still remains standing.

A slightly larger version of the same subject, dated 1799, is in the British Museum (L.Stainton, British Landscape Watercolours 1600-1860, 1985, pl.46).  Another version on the same sized sheet as the present work is in the Maidstone Museum and Art Gallery.   The composition, again with variations, was engraved in 1796 by J.Dadley and illustrated in Sir George Stainton's publication (op.cit., pl.XX)