Lot 156: Martin Ferdinand Quadal (Niemtschitz, Czechoslovakia 1736-1811 St. Petersburg)

Martin Ferdinand Quadal (Niemtschitz, Czechoslovakia 1736-1811 St. Petersburg)
Portrait of a gentleman, traditionally identified as a member of the Taylor family of Stradmore House, Llandygwydd, Cardiganshire, seated, three-quarter-length, in a blue coat and red waistcoat, with his dog in a landscape
signed and dated 'M.F. Quadal F. 1779' (lower left)
oil on canvas
44¼ x 36½ in. (113 x 92.7 cm.)

Presumably by descent in the Taylor family, Stradmore House, Stradmore Vale, Llandygwydd, Cardiganshire, from where acquired by the present owner.

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Martin Ferdinand Quadal was born in Czechoslovakia, but entered the Royal Academy Schools in London in 1773. He developed a reputation as a portraitist and animal painter, and was recorded in Yorkshire from c.1777-1779, after which he is known to have travelled to Dublin. The present work, dated 1779, was presumably painted in Wales at Stradmore House, Llandygwydd, Cardiganshire, the seat of the Taylor family.
Ellis Waterhouse describes him as 'extemely peripatetic' (The Dictionary of British 18th Century Painters, Suffolk, 1981, p.292), for he later travelled to Rome and Naples, Vienna, Bath, Holland and finally Russia, where he became a teacher at the Academy. He died in St. Petersburg in 1808.