Joseph Collet

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Joseph Collet

by Amoy Chinqua
unfired painted clay on a bamboo armature, 1716
33 in. (838 mm) high
Given by the sitter's descendant, W.P.G. Collet, 1956
Primary Collection
NPG 4005

On display in Room 10 on Floor 3 at the National Portrait Gallery

Sitterback to top

  • Joseph Collet (1673-1725), Merchant and administrator in Sumatra and Madras. Sitter in 1 portrait.

Artistback to top

  • Amoy Chinqua (active 1716-1720), Sculptor. Artist or producer of 1 portrait.

This portraitback to top

Collet sent this figure to his daughter Elizabeth on 14 December 1716, describing it as 'a sort of Picture or Image of my Self. The lineaments and the Features are Esteem'd very just but the complexion is not quite so well hit; the proportion of my body and my habit is very exact.' It is an early example of an 18th-century Chinese portrait figure made for the export market. It was modelled in Madras. More detailed information on this portrait is available in a National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue, John Kerslake's Early Georgian Portraits (1977, out of print).

Linked publicationsback to top

Subject/Themeback to top

Events of 1716back to top

Current affairs

Failure of the Jacobite rebellion. John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll disperses the remainder of the Jacobite troops. The Pretender, James Stuart, flees to France. Jacobite leaders James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater and William Gordon, 6th Viscount of Kenmure are executed.
Septennial Act extends life of parliament from three to seven years.

Art and science

Artist Philip Mercier settles in England from Paris.
Physicist and Astronomer Royal Edmond Halley suggests a precise measurement of the distance between the Earth and the Sun by timing the transit of Venus.

International

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu leaves for Turkey with her husband who takes up the post of Ambassador to Constantinople. While there she writes a series of letters, observing contemporary Turkish life, later to be published as the celebrated Turkish Embassy Letters.
Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI has a son, but the child dies within the year.

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