Portrait of a young Gentleman

JOHANN BAPTIST CLOSTERMAN

(Osnabruck 1660 – London 1713)

A Portrait of a young Gentleman in a coat with a flint lock silver embossed hunting pouch, a King Charles spaniel at his side

Oil on canvas:  50 x 40 in.  127 x 101.5 cm.

In a period carved and gilded Sunderland frame

Provenance:  Private Collection, East Sussex

The later Sir Oliver Millar, Keeper of the Queen’s Pictures, confirmed the attribution to Closterman by verbal communication.

Closterman studied initially in Paris with Francois de Troy before arriving in London in 1681.   Here he was associated with John Riley’s studio until Riley’s death in 1691, at which point Closterman took on several of his mentor’s leading cients, such as the Dukes of  Marlborough and Somerset, as well as executing his most famous group ‘The children of John Taylor of Bifrons Park’ c.1696, now at the National Portrait Gallery on loan to Beningborough Hall.   Other eminent sitters painted by Closterman included Queen Anne and the composer Henry Purcell.

In 1698 Closterman visited Madrid and the following year Rome, where he painted a portrait of the eminent baroque artist Carlo Maratti and nuanced his style to a more antique idiom.   This was also consistent with the tastes of his new patron, the Earl of Shaftesbury, of whom he executed two full-length portraits around 1700, one of them also in the National Portrait Gallery.

Closterman was undoubtedly one of the leading society portraitists of his day, matching Lely and later Kneller with the baroque exuberance of his drapery and figure groupings.

A small exhibition devoted to the artist at the National Portrait Gallery in 1981 was curated by Dr.Malolm Rogers, and his work is discussed in the Walpole Society, XLIX ,1983, 224ff.