This portrait of a handsome young gentleman depicts a member of the Lloyd family of Aston Hall, Salop and shows the sitter in very fashionable attire which was influenced by royal hunting clothes first introduced in 1729. Peter Wentworth, a royal page, wrote to his brother Lord Strafford on 14th August 1729 that Princess Anne had presented him “a hunting suit of clothes, which is blue, trimmed with gold, and faced and lined with red. The Prince of Wales, Princess Anne, the Duke of Cumberland, Princess Mary, and Princess Louisa wear the same, and looked charming pretty in them.” So stylish were they considered that he further noted “…a world of gentleman have had the ambition to follow his Royal Highness’s fashion.” The Prince was depicted by John Wootton riding out in the attire in 1729 and from that date on we can follow variations and copies of the clothes throughout figurative painting of the ensuing decade.

Enoch Seeman was trained by his father who brought him as a young man to London, where he remained. He enjoyed a modest success, charging low prices for his work. His first major commission was a full-length portrait of George I for the Middle Temple in 1717. His popularity was broad and much patronage came from the aristocracy wanting reliable representations of themselves for posterity.

The present portrait passed through the generations at Aston Hall until it was acquired by the Rev. Rossendale Lloyd at the sale in 1923. His son Andrew Lloyd in turn sold this and other paintings in 1953 around the time of leaving the large family estates.