Lot 66
James Seymour(London 1702-1752)Captain Robert Douglas riding out
Amended
6 December 2023, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £38,400 inc. premium
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James Seymour (London 1702-1752)
Captain Robert Douglas riding out
signed with initials and dated 'JS 1751' (lower left)
oil on canvas
66.4 x 80.5cm (26 1/8 x 31 11/16in).
signed with initials and dated 'JS 1751' (lower left)
oil on canvas
66.4 x 80.5cm (26 1/8 x 31 11/16in).
Footnotes
Provenance
The Collection of A. Kennedy Kisch Esq.
Sale, Sotheby's, London, 16 July 1958, lot 48
With J. Leger and Son, London (Apollo, June 1959), where purchased by the grandfather of the present owners
Literature
E. Waterhouse, The Dictionary of British 18th Century Painters in oils and crayons, London, 1981, p. 341
R. Wills, James Seymour, London, 2023, p.288, cat. no. 125
Robert Douglas (1727-1809) was the 5th son of George, 7th Laird of Friarshaw, an estate in the Scottish Borders, and Elizabeth Scott of Ancrum. In 1745, as a captain in the Duke of Ancaster's regiment, he marched from Stamford to Doncaster, but was ordered to return and in April 1746 he was to arrive too late for the Battle of Culloden, allowing him later to write in his autobiography that he was pleased not to have to fight against his fellow countrymen. It was in 1751 that the present portrait was painted by James Seymour. In 1763 he served as Lieutenant-Colonel in Baron de Salves's regiment of Marines; he was promoted to Colonel in 1766, and in 1778 was Commander of the City of 's-Hertogenbosch in North Brabant, where he became Under-Governor in 1780, replacing Ludwig Ernst von Brunswick-Lüneburg-Bevern as Governor of the City in 1784. After serving as Lieutenant-General in the Marines in 1794, he retired on a half-pension following the French invasion of the City in the Netherlands. He died at Zierikzee in Zeeland on the 30 September 1809. There is a large quantity of correspondence between Robert Douglas and the Stadholder, Prince William V of Orange in the Koninklijk Huisarchief (the Archive of the Royal Family) in The Hague.
Saleroom notices
Please note that the present work bears an indistinct, identifying inscription (lower left).
