A Dutch Merchant, Possibly Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest, by Chitqua, c. 1770
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A Dutch Merchant, Possibly Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest

Also titled Nederlandse koopman, wellicht Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest

Chitqua (ca. –1796)

c. 1770

Medium
clay, oil paint (paint)
Classification
figure
Dimensions
height 36.5 cm x width 31.5 cm x depth 20 cm
Museum
Rijksmuseum
Credit line
Gift of the heirs of J.H. Timmer, Amsterdam
Rights
Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed

View at the Rijksmuseum

About this work

Van Braam Houckgeest was director of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) trading post in the southern Chinese port of Canton from 1790 to 1795. He possibly ordered this figure of himself during one of his earlier journeys through China. The Chinese sculptor Chitqua specialized in such clay portraits, usually of foreigners. Comparable likenesses of other Dutch merchants and captains of VOC ships are also known.