Chinnery's most famous portrait is probably that of Hou Qua, already mentioned. Té shows a man of delicate, almost emaciated countenance, ma the large dark eyes and great forehead that should mark the scholar. He wears a pale blue gown, a rich brown fur robe lined with figured silk and about his neck hangs an amber and jade necklace. Beside him on the blackwood table is a teacup of eggshell china and at a corner the wall behind him, where one looks out into a lovely garden, hangs a great red lantern adorned with tassels.
No less beautiful is the portrait of another' hong merchant, believed to have been Song Qua but really unidentified. Dark purple, brown and bright blues and reds are combined in an exquisite piece of colouring, and at the right-hand side is a bowl of goldfish which is a miracle of skilful painting. The face is wonderful, an autocratic and positive gentleman this, a strong hand to gee and keep riches, but withal a humorous bird—is it in the lips or eyes or where, that the suggestion of laughter rusinly seen'—a man who would love a good dinner and a good story and to have his friends about him.
But almost best of all, perhaps, is the portrait of the gatekeeper. Nothing distinguished, perhaps, about this old fellow, although he realizes and means that everybody else shall realize that gate keeping is a highly honourable position, but just one of those commonplace people, not, in reality, at all commonplace, but as various and original as all God's creatures were meant to be, Pies provided writers like and Dickens with inexhaustible and equally unapproachable. studies.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.