British Painter , ca.1702-1752 English painter and draughtsman. The son of James Seymour (d 1739), a dealer in pictures and precious metals, Seymour was among the first English painters to specialize exclusively in sporting subject-matter. Though he possibly received some informal drawing instruction from the topographer Francis Place, Seymour was essentially a self-taught artist whose education was based on the study of pictures that passed through his father's hands; one of his earliest known works is a sketch of a horse's head after van Dyck (sold London, Christie's, 16 June 1970). His early 'genius to drawing of horses' was, according to George Vertue, compromised by 'modish extravagances' through living 'gay high and loosely' and because he 'never studied enough to paint or colour well'. Elsewhere, however, it was recorded that by 1739 he was 'reckoned the finest draughtsman in his way [of horses, hounds etc.] in the whole world' (Universal Spectator, 1739), and he was certainly preferred to his chief rival, John Wootton, by many sporting patrons. Among his employers was William Jolliffe MP, of Ammerdown. Though many of his paintings are either derivative of Wootton or simply inept, or both, others are characterized by a self-conscious stylistic naivety in which meticulous attention to detail and eerily static compositions combine to create curiously memorable images of some apparent sophistication.   Related Paintings of James Seymour :. | The Fortune Tellers | The Molo and the Riva degli Schiavoni from the Bacino di San Marco | The Holy Family with the infant St. John the Baptist | le nord sub | The Fate of the Animals, 1913 |
Related Artists:
Fred Morgan
British 1856-1927
MANFREDI, Bartolomeo
Italian Baroque Era Painter, 1582-1622 Italian painter. In the 17th century he was known throughout Italy and beyond as Caravaggio's closest follower and his works were highly prized and widely collected. More than simply aping Caravaggio's style, Manfredi reinterpreted his subjects and rendered new ones, drawing upon Caravaggio's naturalism and dramatic use of chiaroscuro. His paintings were often praised by his contemporaries as equal to Caravaggio's and he was subsequently emulated and imitated by other Roman Caravaggisti during the 1610s and 1620s. Yet by the 18th century his works were forgotten or confused with those of Caravaggio himself,
Gerhard Wilhelm von Reutern
painted Abraham sacrificing Isaac in 1849