Page 27 - Christie's London China Trade Paintings Kelton Collection

Nattier, Jean-Marc (?) Portrait of Peter I. France. 17th Century. Oil on canvas.
142.5 x 110cm. Inv. no. ЭРЖ-1856 © The State Hermitage Museum.
Photo by Vladimir Terebenin

This fnely carved fgure appears to have been inspired by Jean-Marc Nattier's three-quarter length portrait of the Tsar, wearing
armour and with his helmet, in the State Hermitage Museum (see opposite). The sash, position of arms (the right holding a baton, the
left resting on his sword's hilt), the armour, including the helmet, all refected in the fgurine. Nattier's bust-length oval version painted
in 1717 (Musée National du Chateau, Versailles) also features the precious stone worn just below the sitter's collar. A full length
portrait by Godfrey Kneller of the sitter, also in armour, studded with gold, was commissioned by William III in 1688 when the Tsar
was visiting William of Orange on his Grand Embassy of 1697-98 (Royal Collection, RCIN 405645). The present carving is thought to
have been ordered from Holland, and taken either from a painted copy of the source picture or, more likely, from a print (both Nattier
and Kneller's portraits were engraved). Such a commission would have undoubtedly been ordered in Canton (Guangzhou), and the
piece may have been carved in the soapstone (steatite) carving centre in Putian, Fujian Province, if not in Canton.

'Of all the objects the Chinese could produce for the export market, nothing more intrigued westerners than the carvings of ivory,
mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell, sandalwood and hardstone. ... Stones such as jadeite, nephrite and soapstone were used for pagodas,
tomb models and carved Chinese gods and fgures. ... The Chinese had been famous for carving in jade and soapstone for centuries.
How much was brought to America in the frst ffty years of the China Trade is dificult to assess, since only a few documented pieces
exist in private or public collections.' (C.L. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade, Woodbridge, 1991, p.289).
Carved stone fgures of western subjects are very rare in early carvings in hardstones such as soapstone and jadeite, and in ivory,
produced for the western market. There are western fgures, such as Napoleon, carved in stone and ivory for chess sets in the early
19th century, but there are few fgurines in this hardstone portraying Western fgures in the 18th century. There are rather painted clay
fgures which date to the early 18th century: 'If the portraits by Spoilum in the last quarter of the 19th century are to be considered
perhaps the most delightful examples of two-dimensional representation to come out of the China trade in its early years, then
certainly the full-length modelled fgures of Westerners are the most charming three-dimensional fgures ever made. The very frst of
these fgures, in painted, unfred clay, seem to have been by a modeller who signed himself 'Amoy Chinqua', or Chinqua from Amoy.
A fgure of Joseph Collet of the East India Company, Governor of Fort St George in Madras from 1717 to his death in 1725, is in the
collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London. In a letter written by him in 1716 he mentions sending his 'Image' to England. A
second fgure ... inscribed 'Amoy Chinquafe (1)717' was exhibited at Brighton Pavilion in 1986 and is in the collection of the Peabody
Museum. ... Although the Collet fgure suggests Chinqua was in India, all the 18th century fgures known to the author which seem to
follow this precedent appear to have originated in Canton.' (C.L. Crossman, Ibid, pp.307-10). Western fgures were also produced by
the well-travelled Chitqua (Tan-Che-Qua), the artist and clay modeller from Canton, in the 1770s.

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