The Young Cavalier
George Paul Chalmers (Montrose 1833 - Edinburgh 1878)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1860 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil on panel
Measurements
318 x 267 mm (12 1/2 x 10 1/2 in)
Place of origin
Great Britain
Order this imageCollection
Polesden Lacey, Surrey
NT 1246538
Caption
Chalmers was just embarking on his career as a portraitist in Edinburgh when he painted this picture of young boy. With its bravura brushwork and historical dress, it was probably not intended as an actual portrait but as a charming evocation of seventeenth-century fashion and manners.
Summary
Oil painting on panel, The Young Cavalier by George Paul Chalmers (Montrose 1833 - Edinburgh 1878), signed and dated, "G. P. Chalmers 1860". A half-length portrait of a young boy dressed as a cavalier, with light brown curly shoulder-length hair beneath a tall crowned black hat with a white plume which he holds with his right hand. He wears a red gown with a red ermine edged cloak and has a sword hanging from a sword-belt, his white collar has two tassels hanging from it.
Provenance
The bequest of Margaret (Anderson) McEwan, The Hon. Mrs Ronald - later Dame Margaret - Henry Fulke Greville, DBE (1863-1942) from probate records linked with the donation of the property to the National Trust in 1943. This item found on the record for Polesden Lacey pictures, drawings etc., the Gun Room Lavatory, page 134.
Credit line
Polesden Lacey, The McEwan Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
GF Chalmers 1860 (signed and dated)
Makers and roles
George Paul Chalmers (Montrose 1833 - Edinburgh 1878), artist