Foster 886

Half-length portrait of Claudius James Rich, c.1803

Oil on canvas.75 by 63 cms.

Presented to the British Museum by the sitter’s widow, date unknown; lent to the British Library by the Trustees of the British Museum.

Claudius James Rich (1787-1820), was born in France but brought up in Bristol. A brilliant linguist, he studied a numberof Oriental languages at an early age, and applied to the East India Company for a military cadetship. The directors decided his abilities would be better served on the civil establishment, appointing him a Writer in the Bombay Civil Service. He was given permission to go first to Egypt, however, as secretary to the Consul-General, Mr. Lock, in order to improve his Arabic and Turkish, embarking on the ‘Hindostan’, early in 1804. The ship caught fire off the Spanish coast and Rich spent some time in Italy and Malta, before travelling to Constantinople and then to Smyrna. Lock had died meanwhile and Rich made several journeys into the interior of Asia Minor before joining the new Consul-General, Colonel Missett, in Egypt, as his assistant. He then visited Syria and Palestine, before finally reaching Bombay in 1807. The following year he married the daughter of the Governor, Sir James Mackintosh, and within two years was appointed Resident at Baghdad. He continued to travel, and published ‘Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon’, London, 1815, ‘Second memoir on Babylon’, London, 1818 and ‘Narrative of a residence in’ ‘Koordistan and on the site of ancient Nineveh’, 2 vols, London, 1836. Rich died of cholera during a visit to Shiraz where he is buried in one of the royal gardens.

His collections of manuscripts, coins, gems and antiquities were purchased by the British Museum, and the present portrait was presented to the Museum by his widow, with a stipulation that it be hung in the manuscripts reading room.