James Latham
, Irish, 1696-1747
Title
Self-PortraitDatec.1730
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions
76 x 63.5 cm
Credit LinePresented, Friends of the National Gallery of Ireland, 1993
Object numberNGI.4589
Label TextThough no documentation or comparable portraits survive to confirm that this is a self-portrait, the evidence of the work itself points compellingly to that possibility. The subject boasts an almost haughty self-confidence typical of self-portraiture of the eighteenth century. The fact that Latham presents himself as a gentleman rather than specifically as an artist (he holds neither brush nor palette) is not unusual. A self-portrait by Latham was certainly owned by the artist Philip Hussey, and was ‘exceedingly valued by the possessor’.