This superb self-portrait of the artist Enoch Seeman (c. 1690-1744) comes to the market for the first time and constitutes one of the finest examples of the artist’s work.

Seeman was born in Danzig in c. 1690 and travelled to London with his father, also named Enoch Seeman, in around 1704. Seeman’s earliest known work is a large group portrait of the Bisset family at Castle Forbes which is signed and dated 1708. Considering the size of this commission it can be assumed that the young artist already had a successful practice, despite being only 18 years old.

It was at this time that Seeman painted his first known self-portrait which shows a young artist filled with intrigue, in very much the same template as this later work.

Despite his young age, Seeman became an immensely popular artist amongst the nobility. George Vertue notes in 1723 that Seeman “did his own picture in that finisht manner extreamly well, when he was about 19 years old this picture was much admired. & Sig Ricci when he was here advisd Lord Burlington to give him 100 guineas for it.” [1] Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington was one of the great connoisseur collectors of his day who had employed the Italian artist Sebastiano Ricci between 1713-14. Considering the price of 100 guineas, clearly Seeman was viewed with great esteem as a fulllength portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller at the same time would have cost 60 guineas.

Seeman’s mature style was very much indebted to that of Court portraitist Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723). Kneller was, at the time this work was completed, the leading artist in the country and would certainly have been someone that Seeman knew personally. Indeed when looking at Kneller’s 1684 self-portrait it is clear to see how Seeman was influenced by Kneller’s style and composition.

Seeman painted a surprising number of self portraits giving an insight into his contemporary popularity and celebrity amongst collectors. Indeed the great collector Elihu Yale owned a self-portrait by Seeman which was sold at the first auction following his death in December 1721. [2]

Seeman’s confident gaze out to the viewer shows an artist painting at the height of his career. the artist wears a painters smock and rich velvet turban giving the indication that the viewer has come across him whilst at work in his studio. Unusually Seeman’s portrait is in part unfinished with soft, loose brushwork and signs of stray daubs of paint suggesting the work was very much painted not as a formally commissioned portrait but instead either for the artist himself or for study.

This portrait was once part of the collection of the Earls of Lauderdale at Thirlestane Castle on the Scottish Borders. It was known to the great art historian Ellis Waterhouse who commented in his 1953 canonical text Painting in Britain, 1530-1790 that ‘(Seeman) was accurately categorized by the Duchess of Marlborough in a letter of 1734 “Seeman copies very well, and sometimes draws the faces like” , but uncommissioned works, such as the ‘Selfportrait’ at Thirlestane Castle, show he was not as uniformly pedestrian as he seems”. [3] Indeed the bravura with which Seeman has completed this work demonstrates his fantastic ability as a young artist.

[1] George Vertue, Notebooks, Vol. III, pg. 15-16

[2] Diana Scarisbrick, Elihu Yale; Merchant, Collector & Patron, Thames & Hudson, London, 2014, pg. 235

[3] Ellis Waterhouse, Painting in Britain; 1530 to 1790, Penguin Books, London, 1953, pg. 128