Memento Portrait of a Young Midshipman

1769–1824

Not on view

The young subject’s blue jacket in this work identifies him as a sailor in the Royal Navy, a distant ship signaling his imminent departure from home. Downman’s success as a Regency-era portraitist resulted from a technique he devised that combined chalks and watercolor, enabling him to capture appealing likenesses and make multiple copies of these portraits if required. He received commissions from the royal family and nobility, but it was his many drawings for middle-class patrons that encouraged a growing contemporary taste for intimate, domestic-scale　portraiture. Born in Wales, Downman studied in Liverpool and London, traveled to Italy, and then worked in Cambridge, Plymouth, Chester, and Wrexham. This drawing was part of a bequest to the Met from Brooklyn-born George Dupont Pratt, a noted philanthropist, collector, and Met trustee.

Artwork Details

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Provenance

Exhibition History

Title: Memento Portrait of a Young Midshipman
Artist: John Downman (British, Eynesbury, Huntingdonshire 1749–1824 Wrexham, Wales)
Date: 1769–1824
Medium: Watercolor, colored chalk, and graphite
Dimensions: sheet: 9 7/8 x 8 1/2 in. (25.1 x 21.6 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Bequest of George D. Pratt, 1935
Object Number: 48.149.18
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By John Downman

In the same medium

From the same time and place

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British (Welsh)
18th century (?)

Silhouetted Study of Bacchus in a Niche, Anonymous, Italian, 18th century Italian, Pen and gray ink, brush with gray and pale brown wash, highlighted with white gouache, over black chalk, on cream paper. Figure cut out along contours and pasted onto a drawn niche with an arched top (in brush and gray wash, over graphite or lead) on beige paper — Silhouetted Study of Bacchus in a Niche
Anonymous, Italian, 18th century
18th century

Captain Downman, the artist's brother, John Downman British, Welsh, Black chalk, brush and gray wash — Captain Downman, the artist's brother
John Downman
Sitter Francis Dowman
ca. 1776

Welsh Triple Harp, John Richards British, Welsh, Wood, various materials., British (Welsh) — Welsh Triple Harp
John Richards
ca. 1750

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