GRAAT, Barent - b. 1628 Amsterdam, d. 1709 Amsterdam

Dutch painter and draughtsman. At the age of 16 he was apprenticed to his uncle ‘Master Hans’, an animal painter, with whom he studied for six to seven years. He spent his entire career in Amsterdam. At first he painted landscapes with cattle in the style of Pieter van Laer, but his best works are either domestic interiors or history paintings with figures, or full-length group portraits set in a landscape or interior. These small paintings (e.g. Family in a Landscape, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) required considerable technical dexterity. Despite the fact that Graat’s work is of an excellent standard, he received little recognition. Consequently, his paintings have been sold under the name of better-known artists such as Gerard Terborch, with whose work his own has much in common.

Equestrian Portrait of a Gentleman

The painting shows the equestrian portrait of a gentleman (aged 55 according to an inscription upper left) riding a bay horse, in the position of the levade, before classical ruins in an Italianate landscape.

The Netherlands does not have a long tradition of equestrian portraits as do other Northern European countries and Habsburg Spain. In these lands in the first half of the 17th century these are mainly portraits of kings, princes or military commanders, intended to impress. During the second half of the 17th century the equestrian portraits became less the sole preserve of rulers and military commanders: less official and less military. Affluent citizens and merchants were now also portrayed mounted, perhaps as they acquired rural estates.