Lot 14: Attributed to John Hamilton Mortimer (1740-1779)

Portrait of Mr. Seward, full-length, seated in an armchair beside a table, holding an open book in his right hand oil on canvas 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm.) PROVENANCE Mrs. Kenrick. with Thos. Agnews & Son Ltd., London (no. 9367). EXHIBITION Canterbury, 1937, lent by Mrs Kenrick (according to an old label attached to the stretcher). NOTES John Sunderland has suggested that this portrait is by John Hamilton Mortimer. The tightly modelled features and clothes, and the languid pose of the sitter recall Mortimer's portrait of M. Masson, the French Tennis Player (J. Sunderland, John Hamilton Mortimer, his life and works, Walpole Society, LII, pl. 42). Carpets feature rarely in the furnishings of Mortimer's portraits, although The Drake Family of Shardeloes ( op. cit., pl. 215), exhibited in 1778, displays a similarly finely wrought carpet. An alternative attribution to Henry Walton (c.1746-1813) has been put forward by Evelyn Bell.