Portrait of the Hong Merchant Howqua, seated small three-quarter length

A portrait of the Hong merchant Wu Bingjian, known to the Westerners as Howqua, who was the leader of the Co-hong between 1801 and 1840. As with many of Lamqua's portraits, and those other variants of this painting, it derives from Chinnery: 'These portraits of Howqua, together with those of Mowqua and other members of the Co-hong, exist in several versions and sizes, from full-length to head and shoulders ... some in oils and others in gouache. They seem to have had their origin in a group of portraits executed by Chinnery within a few years of his arrival on the China coast: one of these, a portrait of Howqua, was probably shipped to England on January 31st 1830. Following and adapting Chinnery's prototypes, Lamqua must have done a brisk business in such portraits. In particular, the distinctive features of Howqua – domed forehead, hollow cheeks, wispy beard – gained an almost iconic status, the acceptable face, as it were, of the China trade.' (P. Conner, 'Lamqua Western and Chinese Painter', Arts of Asia, March-April 1899, p.54). For a variant, see Martyn Gregory, 1998, cat.72, no.120.