drawing;
album;
print study
- Museum number
- 1865,0520.201
- Description
-
Portrait of the Purveyor to the Embassy; full-length, wearing a hat, black boots and a sheepskin cape over his silk robe; from an album of 82 drawings of China
Watercolour, ink and graphite
- Production date
- 1793-1796
- Dimensions
-
Height: 443 millimetres (album cover)
-
Height: 235 millimetres (sheet)
-
Width: 182 millimetres
-
Width: 334 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- There is a list of descriptions of the subjects inserted in the front of the album. This drawing is listed as: "9 Portrait of the Comprador or purveyor for the Embassy while at Macao. Vide the Costume of China."
Plate 9 (aquatint) in "The Costume of China" (published 1805; etched lettering below the image: "London Publish'd May 1.st 1798, by G. Nicol, Pall mall") is the same full-length portrait of the purveyor but depicts him carrying a wooden box (Alexander's text reveals that the box contained sweetmeats, a jar of which the purveyor gave to the members of the Embassy as a token of his regard) and with the addition of a distant landscape (buildings on the left; a mountain and body of water with boats on the right). The physiognomy is slightly different, but this is probably due to the transformation from watercolour to print.
There is a three-quarter-length unfinished portrait sketch for the "Costume of China" acquatint in the British Museum collection; see 1863,0110.246.
For further information about the album, see comment for 1865,0520.193.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1992-3 Oct-Mar, BM, Britain's First View/China (ff.1,5,25,37,74; no cat.)
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1865,0520.201
