Enoch Seeman

Private Collection, Sweden, until acquired by the present owner.

This unlined canvas has retained much of the original impasto in its paint surface, and remains in largely good condition. The varnish appears even if only very slightly discoloured, there is one tiny paint loss in the white over garment, above the sitters right armpit. Inspection under ultra violet light reveals a scattering of small old restored damages, all of which have been patched with a fine gauze, and some paint on the reverse. These damages are: bottom left through and below the middle of the sitters forearm (this is the most significant of all the restorations), one at the top of his right shoulder, one just to our left of the tassels on his right side, one above his left shoulder, one to the left of the tassels on his left breast, and one in the dark tones at the bottom right hand corner. These restorations have some retouchings, but the only others are a very small localised patch in his forehead. Offered in a simple gilt wood frame in fain condition, with some knocks.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The costume in this painting is similar to that found in a Portrait of His Excellency Mohammed Ben Ali Abgali, Ambassador of the King of Morocco to the Court of St. James’, formerly in the collection of the Duke of Richmond, at Goodwood (sold in these rooms 11 July 1984, lot 44), which more recently set the current world record price for a painting by Enoch Seeman at auction (Drouot, Paris, on 10 December 2007, lot 31). Mohammed Ben Ali Abgali visited England between August 1725 and September 1727 on an embassy to King George I, and whilst he was in London was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. The staff that accompanied him from North Africa are listed in a letter transcribed in the journal of Sir Clement Cottrell (1686-1758), the courtier and antiquary, and included fifteen Moroccan officials; an interpreter, identified as Abraham Benider, a Gibraltar-based Jewish polyglot, and his companion who is simply identified by the name Samuel; and two Englishmen, John Russell (d.1752), Clerk to the Cheque at Gibraltar, who would later be appointed Consul General at Tétouan in Morocco, and an unnamed companion.¹ Whilst the robes worn by the sitter in this portrait are those of a high ranking Moroccan official, complete with a white woollen haik, or mantle, over brightly coloured silk tunics fastened with loops and buttons; small details of his outfit, such as the cruciform European dagger in his waistband in place of the traditional nimcha, and the lack of a turban around his cap, suggest that this man is not a Muslim. That he is clean shaven suggests that he is also not a Jew, who like the Muslims would have been bearded, and Russell's extensive surviving correspondence makes no mention of this portrait or of his adopting traditional Moroccan dress, making it most unlikely that he is either of the two Englishmen in the delegation. In any case a known portrait of Russell shows a different physiognomy.²

If he is not a Muslim of North African origin, then it would appear that he is a European in fancy dress, most likely an Englishman. A possible identification for the sitter is John Montagu, 2^nd Duke of Montagu (1690-1749). The son of Ralph Montagu, 1^st Duke of Montagu and his wife Elizabeth Wriothesley, daughter of the Earl of Southampton and Dowager Countess of Northumberland, Montagu was one of the most cultured and enlightened men of his age. A patron and one of the founding governors of the Foundling Hospital, Britain’s first home for abandoned children, he also sponsored the education of two of the most notable black figures of the era; the former slave Ignatius Sancho, who became a celebrated composer, actor and writer; and the freeborn Jamaican poet Francis Williams, whom Montagu sent to Cambridge.  Well known for his practical jokes and hoaxes, he was a friend of the Duke of Richmond, who hosted the Moroccan Ambassador at Goodwood during his stay in England, and also knew John Russell. He was a member of the Royal Society, to which the Ambassador had been elected at the proposal of the Duke of Richmond in March 1727, and both he and Richmond were members of the Grand Lodge of English Freemasons.³

Montagu and Richmond were also both prominent members of the Kit-Cat club, and part of that set which formed the Divan Club in the mid-1740s, dedicated to those with a passion for the East, of which Richmond was certainly a member.⁴ Extant information about the membership of the Divan Club is scarce, however we do know from surviving portraits of some of its more notorious members, such as Sir Francis Dashwood, that they dressed up in Ottoman costume; and we know from contemporary correspondence that in 1738 Montagu was one of a small party that dined with another Moroccan Ambassador, Admiral Hajj Abdelkadar Perez, at the Duke of Richmond’s house in London.⁵ In 1725, at the time of Abgali’s embassy to England, the Duke of Montagu would have been thirty-five years old, and his physiognomy, which is well document in a number of known portraits from this period, is strikingly similar to that of the young man in the present portrait, including two in the National Portrait Gallery, London; one by Kneller and the other by John Verelst with James O’Hara, 2^nd Baron Tyrawley which bears a particularly striking likeness with the head in this painting.  Whilst eastern costume as a form of masquerade dress was popular in the early eighteenth century, and there are numerous version of Charles Jervas’ portrait of Montagu’s wife, Lady Mary Churchill, in Turkish dress; the costume in this portrait is a distinctly more authentic and sincere attempt at dissimilation, even to the inclusion of a gold earring. In this it is more comparable to Michael Dahl’s 1687 portrait of Charles O’Brien, 2^nd Earl of Inchquin, the former Commander of the Garrison at Algiers, as a North African chieftain (Private Collection), or Romney’s much later portrait of Edward Wortley Montagu in Turkish dress (Sotheby’s, 9 July 2014, lot 45). Indeed it ties the picture to Andrea Soldi’s portraits of English merchants of the Levant Company, painted in the mid-1730s, and in keeping with Montagu’s character works simultaneously as both as a light hearted piece of amusement, and a serious statement on the nature of human self-determination.   

 

1. Sir Clement Cottrell’s Journal, p. 99, quoted in Fine Art Society 1985, and confirmed by Dr Roderick Clayton, Honorary Archivist at Rousham.

2. An engraving of a portrait of Russell is illustrated as the frontispiece in M. E. Matcham (ed.), A Forgotten John Russell: Being Letters to a Man of Business, 1724-1751, London 1905.

3. The Duke of Montagu served as Grand Master from 1721-22, whilst the Duke of Richmond was Grand Master in 1724.

4. See R. Finnegan, ‘The Divan Club, 1744-46’, in Electronic Journal of Oriental Studies, vol. IX, 2006, no. 9, pp. 1-86.

5. From a letter dated Whitehall, 28 January 1738, to John Russell from the Duke of Richmond, quoted in M. E. Matcham (ed.), A Forgotten John Russell: Being Letters to a Man of Business, 1724-1751, London 1905. p. 87.