This remarkable self-portrait of the artist Enoch Seeman (c. 1690-1744) must have been painted at the same time as another self-portrait held in the collections of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, dated to 1716. In both examples, the artist is portrayed with flowing brown hair and a deep red jacket. However in this example, Seeman has portrayed himself in profile, a fascinating homage to portraits of Antiquity where rulers were often depicted on coins and sculptural relief in profile.

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.

Somewhat unusually, Seeman appears to have painted a large number of self-portraits throughout his career, the earliest known example dating from 1708. This would suggest he used himself as a model for study, especially considering many of the self portraits depict the artist in differing poses.

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 full-length portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller at the same time would have cost 60 guineas.