Enoch Seeman
Self-Portrait, c. 1710-15
Oil on canvas
24 ¾ x 18 ¾ in. (63 x 47.5 cm)
Philip Mould & Co.
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Enoch Seeman's self-portraits are among the most inventive and technically brilliant of his career.
Seeman looks over his shoulder with a confident swagger aimed to exemplify his precocious capabilities as an artist. This bust-length portrait has a heightened sense of dramatic flair achieved by the artist’s competent handling of tonal contrasts. The way in which Seeman has emphasized his facial features above all else is routed in the tradition of tenebrism as developed by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) and Dutch Golden Age painter Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656) the latter of whom explored innovative means of painting scenes illuminated by a single artificial light source such as a flickering candle, something which Seeman explores in his Self-Portrait with the artist’s Younger Brother Isaac.
Enoch Seeman (The Younger) was born in Danzig (present day Gdańsk) in Poland in 1694. Born into a family of prestigious painters, the young Enoch was brought to London by his father in 1704 and within a few years was painting portraits on commission. His early work shows a clear interest in the stylistic tendencies of fashionable court painter Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723) and comparisons can be drawn between the present portrait and Kneller’s Self-Portrait of 1685 [National Portrait Gallery, NPG 3794].
Enoch Seeman's self-portraits are among the most inventive and technically brilliant of his career.
Seeman looks over his shoulder with a confident swagger aimed to exemplify his precocious capabilities as an artist. This bust-length portrait has a heightened sense of dramatic flair achieved by the artist’s competent handling of tonal contrasts. The way in which Seeman has emphasized his facial features above all else is routed in the tradition of tenebrism as developed by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) and Dutch Golden Age painter Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656) the latter of whom explored innovative means of painting scenes illuminated by a single artificial light source such as a flickering candle, something which Seeman explores in his Self-Portrait with the artist’s Younger Brother Isaac.
Enoch Seeman (The Younger) was born in Danzig (present day Gdańsk) in Poland in 1694. Born into a family of prestigious painters, the young Enoch was brought to London by his father in 1704 and within a few years was painting portraits on commission. His early work shows a clear interest in the stylistic tendencies of fashionable court painter Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723) and comparisons can be drawn between the present portrait and Kneller’s Self-Portrait of 1685 [National Portrait Gallery, NPG 3794].
Provenance
Private Collection, UK.
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