Portrait of a gentleman, half-length, in a silver brocaded mantle, in a painted oval

James Latham was the most distinguished Irish portrait painter of the first half of the 18th Century. However, there is only enough documentary evidence to furnish a bare outline of his life and career. The first writer to mention him is the Rev. Thomas Campbell who wrote in 1777 that 'he had seen very good portraits here [Ireland], those of Latham are admirable and far superior to Mr. Jervase' (Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland, London, 1777, p. 439). Anthony Pasquin, writing in the 1790s, gives the most information about him recording that Latham came from Co. Tipperary and that he travelled to Antwerp, where he is recorded in the records of the Guild of St. Luke as a member in 1724/5 (Memoirs of the Royal Academicians and Authentic History of the Artists of Ireland..., London, 1796, p. 29). Latham is next mentioned in Walsh's History of the City of Dublin which repeats much of what Pasquin had said but adds that he was working in Dublin from 1725 commenting that 'some of his pictures would do honour to a modern painter for colour, breadth, facility of execution and good drawing' (London, 1818, II, p. 1179). Little is known of his training or his influences. It has been suggested, on stylistic grounds, that he may have received some training from his fellow Irish artist Garret Morphey or at the least have been greatly influenced by examples of the latter's art which were to be found on the walls of many country houses in Ireland. It is also thought likely that he visited England at some point during his career where he may well have had contact with some of the leading portraitists of the day such as Charles Jervas, Joseph Highmore and Michael Dahl, although no evidence of such a trip exists. Identification of his work hinges on comparison with two portraits which are securely identified from engravings; his portrait of Bishop Berkeley of Cloyne (Trinity College, Dublin) which was engraved in mezzotint by John Brooks in 1743, and his full-length portrait of Eaton Stannard, as Recorder of Dublin (National Gallery of Ireland).

This portrait has in the past been identified as a self-portrait of the artist. Pasquin records a self portrait by Latham which he ahd seen in the collection of Philip Hussey, of Dublin 'which was exceedingly valued by the possessor'. That self portrait is, however, thought most likely to correlate with the portrait now in the National Gallery of Ireland (A. Crookshank, 'James Latham', Irish Arts Review, 1988, p. 71, no. 70). This portrait, with its skillful rendering of the embroidery of the sitter's costume, is characteristic of the artist's portraiture of the 1740s.