Alexander, William
William Alexander (April 10, 1767 –July 23, 1816) was an English painter, illustrator, and engraver. He was one of the appointed draughtsmen on Lord Macartney's famous embassy to China, and several of his drawings were published in George Leonard Staunton's An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China in 1797. Alexander was an accomplished artist from a young age, moving to London at 15 to study with William Pars and Julius Caesar Ibbetson. At age 16, he was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools, and he soon gained the support of the acclaimed artist Sir Joshua Reynolds. Following the Macartney embassy, he continued to publish works related to voyages to Asia and the western coast of America, including Vancouver's famed expedition. In 1802, he was appointed professor of drawing at the Military College at Great Marlow, and then took a position as assistant keeper of antiquities at the British Museum, where he undertook a project illustrating the museum's collection of terra cottas and marbles, which remained uncompleted at the time of his death.
You can't see it from space, but you can see it here.
View of the Great Wall of China, called Van-Lee-Tching, or Wall of Ten Thousand Lee taken near the Pass of Cou-Pe-Koo.
$500.00
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An intricately engraved view of the Great Wall of China drawn by William Alexander based on a sketch by Henry William Parish and engraved by Thomas Medland for inclusion in George Leonard Staunton's An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China. This view was important in developing the aura of the Great Wall in the Western imagination of China, but it also reveals how the wall had become unimportant in China itself. (more details)
Lovely place to summer.
A view of Poo-Ta-La or Great Temple near Zhe-Hol in Tartary.
$400.00
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An impressive view of the Putuo Zongcheng Temple drawn by William Alexander based on a sketch by Henry William Parish and engraved by Benjamin Pouncy for inclusion in George Leonard Staunton's An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China. It depicts the Putuo Zongcheng Temple (普陀宗乘之庙) at Rehe (here as Zhe-hol, now Chengde), the Qing summer palace where the British Macartney embassy met with the Qianlong Emperor in 1793. (more details)