Portrait of a Horseman

When the painting came to the Museum in 1956, the figure was attributed to William Hogarth, and the horse, owing in part to the presence of the monogram, to John Sartorius (1700–ca. 1780). In 1977, Judy Egerton convincingly identified it as a good example of the work of James Seymour, similar to two others then in Paul Mellon’s private collection. The following year, Malcolm Cormack pointed out that the form of the monogram is the same as that on Seymour's Duke of Devonshire's Flying Childers (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven). John Harris (1981) identified the main building in the background as St. George’s Hospital, London, as it appeared after the remodeling by Isaac Ware in 1733. The view, therefore, was taken from a fairly distant point in Hyde Park Gardens and, as Harris also pointed out, includes Chelsea Hospital to the right. The handling is typically sharp, neat, and legible, while the portrayals of the horse and dog are superior to the rather wooden, expressionless portrait of the rider, whose head is large for his stiffly erect body. Several old tears in the green areas of the background do not impinge on either the figure or the animals.

[2010; adapted from Baetjer 2009]

Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): J:S / 1748.

Mr. and Mrs. Otto H. Kahn, New York (by 1927–his d. 1934, as by William Hogarth and John Sartorius); Mrs. Otto H. (Addie W.) Kahn, New York (1934–d. 1949; her estate, 1949–56, as "Portrait of a Horseman")

New York. Knoedler. "Old England: Town and Country," December 5–24, 1927, no. 20 (as "Count Soleirol on Horseback," by John Sartorius and William Hogarth, lent by Otto H. Kahn, Esq.).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Eighteenth-Century Woman," December 12, 1981–September 5, 1982, unnumbered cat. (p. 52).

Judy Egerton. Letter to Mary Ann Harris. July 19, 1977, identifies the painting as a good example of the work of James Seymour and compares it to two similar works in Paul Mellon's collection.

Malcolm Cormack. Letter to Mary Ann Wurth Harris. January 24, 1978, notes that the form of the monogram and date is very similar to that on Seymour's "The Duke of Devonshire's Flying Childers" of 1742 (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven).

John Harris. Letter to Lucy Oakley. March 3, 1981, identifies the background as Hyde Park Gardens with St. George's Hospital.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 184, ill.

Katharine Baetjer. British Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1575–1875. New York, 2009, pp. 51–52, no. 22, ill. (color).