Description
In this charming portrait the artist has portrayed the boy as a fashionable young gentleman sitting in the grounds of his estate.
Only the playful attention of a small dog suggests anything less than patrician dignity.
It is possible that the artist’s presentation of the child was dictated by the sitter’s parents and is a product of the British practice of primogeniture, whereby the eldest son inherits everything: here, the proud heir and first of a new line is portrayed with the soon-to-be-his family estates in the background.
Dogs appearing in portraits such as this were often a symbol for fidelity, trust and loyalty.
His clothing is of a member of the gentry.
Until the late eighteenth century children were dressed as adults – boys were dressed like men in breeches, vests, and coats between four and seven years of age.
From the 1860s, the rite of passage became the move from short to long trousers.
Before the twentieth century, girls and women both wore dresses and skirts all their lives, skirt lengths generally increasing with age.
Circle of James Maubert (1666-1746)
James Maubert was born in Dublin in 1666, the son of a French Huguenot. Like his older countryman Garret Morphy, Maubert trained in Dublin. George Vertue, who knew Maubert and who relied on him as a source for certain anecdotes concerning the painter that appear in his Notebooks, states ‘Mr Maubert had his first instruction in drawing and painting from him in Dublin’.
Like many artists of the period, Godfrey Kneller and Michael Dahl influenced his work. He worked for the Bathurst family, the Herberts and painted portraits of the Duchess of Bolton. Two of these demonstrate Maubert’s practice of including decorative flowers, often honeysuckle, in his portraits.
According to The Walpole Society, ”Vertue Notebooks”, vol. III, Maubert was praised by contemporaries for his ”skilfull, well dispos”d & natural” reproductions of ”fruits, flowers and draperies” and his ability to ”Paint from the life”.
Presented in a fine antique gilded frame.
Provenance: Private UK collection
Framed Measurements:
Height 97cm Width 86cm, Depth 11cm
Height 38”, Width 33.75”, Depth 4.25”
Condition
Full refurbishment throughout and ready to hang.
Delivery
Uk By Fine Art Courier £80 / EU £200 / USA £250
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