Beautiful portrait of a merchant, in western style, in the manner of Lamqua, active in the province of Canton, or Spolium (Guan Zuolin), active in Guangzhou between 1785 and 1810, and famous for his portraits of merchants and navy captains in a western style, rather than the classical Chinese one, characteristically making a large use of ink on silk. For a similar item, refer to the ones sold by Christie’s New York in January 2011 (sale 2404 lot 151) and by Sotheby’s New York on January 23, 2010 (lot 61).Traces of writing on the back of the canvas.