The Sartoriuses. Note 10

Occasionally the name of an artist or, in this case, the names of three generations of artists, stick in the mind and - hey presto! - you seem to see the painters' work wherever you happen to be looking. I seem to be surrounded by the Sartoriuses. Bonhams, Knightsbridge have a forthcoming sale of Sporting and Ornithological Pictures (plus some delightfully primitive livestock paintings). There is a portrait of the racehorse Bay Malton by Francis Sartorius and a pair of Otter Hunting pictures by his grandson, John Francis Sartorius. The second immage of the pair will appeal to few except those interested in the history of field sports and the bygone custom of 'poling' or 'staffing' the otter.

The Sartorius family originally came from Nuremburg. However, John, the father of Francis Sartorius arrived in England in the early eighteenth century from Bavaria. John Sartorius painted in a naive style and little of his work is known now in England. Francis Sartorius (1734-1804) continued in the manner of his father who was also his tutor. He painted a few equestrian portraits and more of racehorses, dogs and a few cart and carriage scenes. These pictures are painted in a comparatively small scale compared with the rendering of similar subjects by John Wootton, James Seymour and Francis's near contemporary, George Stubbs. All the Sartoriuses lacked the panache and fluidity of these earlier 'masters'. However, there are many charming paintings by Francis, and nearly all provide information on the country pursuits of their time. In the Sporting Magazine of 1804 an obituary of Francis's life states that he had "married and co-habited with five successive wives". Among their children was John Nost (or Nott) Sartorius (1759-1828). J.N. Sartorius exhibited more than 100 paintings at the Free Society (where his father had also shown pictures) and at the Royal Academy. He was immensely prolific and his work was engraved and even copied repouse or etched on racing gold cups. Many of his scenes are well composed and there is little doubt that the format of his hunting and racing pictures was the examplar for Samuel and Henry Alken a generation later. This was at a time when John Francis Sartorius (c.1775-1831), one of J.N's sons, was also busy painting similar work to that of his father. Like his father, he too exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy. His portraiture of humans was not his forte! But his pictures of field sports and of dogs, shooting and a few game birds is decorative, to say the least.

My second note on this family comes from a wall-full of Sartorius paintings in what is called the Porch Bedroom at Antony House, Torpoint, Cornwall. The house now belongs to the National Trust (with good Jan Wyck and John Wootton hunting scenes), but the Sartoriuses, while on view to the public, belong to the Carew-Pole family. They were brought to Antony in the late 1920s from a Pole family house, Shute in Devon, (for some reason, now called Shute Barton by the National Trust). The majority of these paintings are by J.N. Sartorius and, most interestingly, were owned by a Sir John William de la Pole of Shute at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

A third sighting of the Sartoriuses lies in the future. The work of Francis, John Nost and John Francis Sartorius can be seen in An Exhibition of Sporting Art at James Harvey British Art, 15 Langton Street, SW10 from 9 to 25 October 2008. There are five paintings by Francis Sartorius: three of racehorses, one hunter and a lovely picture of Shooting over Pointers in a tree-dotted park with house and lake beyond. Naive? Yes, but it is an atmospheric and probably accurate depiction of a favourite country pastime. Among the contributions by J.N. Sartorius there is another Shooting over Pointers - a closer scene in a woodland setting with a gentleman and his keeper out shooting. painted forty or even fifty years after Francis completed his picture: note the changes in dress. There are a further six or more paintings of hunting and racing by J.N. Sartorius. There is just one oil by John Francis, J.N. Sartorius's son. This again is of shooting. Two gentleman set out with their spaniels to walk up whatever game they can find. This is an even more intimate scene as the two men confer and the dogs become impatient, perhaps painted at much the same period as the picture by his father.

In passing, the James Harvey exhibition includes a small and fascinating collection of ten paintings and one watercolour by Sir Alfred Munnings. For the most part these pictures give us an idea of what Munnings enjoyed painting most (including a White Canoe - see Note 9) rather than the B & B swagger equestrian portraits whose fees allowed the artist to live as he wished. There is also a small group of paintings by the talented contemporary artist, Charles Church.

Returning to the Sartoriuses,their merit as artists was not very great. However, their reporting of the manners and ways of hunting, racing and shooting and their portraiture of dogs and other animals in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries provides an invaluable and highly decorative record. And then the Alkens came along.