Sir Paul Rycaut
(1628-1700), Diplomat and writerEarly Stuart Portraits Catalogue Entry
Sitter associated with 8 portraits
The leading authority of his day on the Ottoman Empire. He travelled to Constantinople in 1660 as Private Secretary to the British Ambassador. His first major work, The Present State of the Ottoman Empire (1666), an analysis of Ottoman government and society, was a bestseller in several languages and still published over a hundred years later. Rycaut was British Consul at Smyrna, the most important centre of English trade in the eastern Mediterranean, from 1667 until 1678. In 1669, he published an anonymous account of the movement led by the Jewish pseudo-messiah Sabbatai Zevi, which had erupted at Smyrna in 1665. The work was another bestseller and Rycaut later republished it under his own name.
after Sir Peter Lely
oil on canvas, based on a work of circa 1679-1680
NPG 1874
Unknown man, formerly known as Sir Paul Rycaut
by Unknown artist
watercolour
NPG 2691
possibly by Robert White, after Sir Peter Lely
line engraving, late 17th to early 18th century
NPG D30201
after Sir Peter Lely
line engraving, late 17th to early 18th century
NPG D30203
possibly by Robert White, after Sir Peter Lely
line engraving, late 17th to early 18th century
NPG D30204
by Michael Vandergucht, after Sir Peter Lely
line engraving, late 17th to early 18th century
NPG D30973
by Robert White, after Sir Peter Lely
line engraving, published 1679
NPG D30202
by Robert White, after Sir Peter Lely
line engraving, circa 1679
NPG D42600
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