A Chinese Canton watercolour painting on rice paper, mid-19th Century, depicting a half-length portrait of the Hong Merchant Wu Bingjian, known to the west as Houqua, approx 23.7cm x 17cm, framed and glazed. Note: Houqua (1769-1843) was perhaps the wealthiest man in China during the 19th Century and the most prosperous member of the Canton Cohong. He became rich on the trade between China and the British Empire in the mid-19th Century during the first opium war.