JOHN CLOSTERMAN (Osnabrück 1660-1711 London) Portrait of David Papillon (1691-1762), standing full- length, holding a bow and quiver, a spaniel at his side Oil on canvas - 49 ¾ x 39 ins. (126 x 99 cm) Provenance: By descent through the sitter's family, Acrise Place, Folkestone, Kent Christie’s, 12th March 1943, lot 127, where apparently unsold Mrs A. H. Papillon, Acrise Place, Kent Sale, John German Auctioneers, December 11, 1985, lot 524 Literature: A. Oswald, 'Acrise Place Kent', Country Life, August 15, 1957, p. 303, illus. fig. 10, as by Michael Dahl Malcolm Rogers, ‘John and John Baptiste Closterman: A Catalogue of their Works’, Walpole Society, 1983, Vol. XLIX, no 72, p.255 VP4382 The present work is the prime version of this fine portrait, the second version of which had previously been confused with it and had adopted parts of its provenance. Known to Malcolm Rogers from the 1957 article in Country Life, the re-emergence of the present prime version clears up some of this confusion and the duplication of provenance, however, the reason for the commission of the second version remains obscure. David Papillon was the grandson of the French Huguenot and military engineer David Papillon, who built Papillon Hall, Leicestershire, between 1622 and 1624. Known locally as 'Pamp' or 'Old Pamp', the younger David Papillon acquired a sensational reputation. He was believed to have been in league with the Devil and purported to have had psychic powers. It was said that he kept a Spanish mistress at the Hall, whom he later murdered. Acrise Place, near Folkestone in Kent, came into the possession of the Papillon family in 1666 when it was purchased by Thomas Papillon. The portrait-painter John Closterman (1660–1711) (also spelled Cloosterman, Klosterman) was born in Osnabrück, the son of an artist who taught him the rudiments of design. In 1679 he went to Paris, where he worked for two years in the studio of François de Troy. In 1681 he came to England, and painted draperies and other minor details for John Riley, at whose death in 1691, Closterman finished several of his portraits. This recommended him to the Duke of Somerset, but due to his volatile nature, he lost favour because of a dispute about a picture by Guercino, that was specially acquired for his grace, and which was afterwards purchased by Lord Halifax. In 1696 he was invited to the court of Spain, and executed the portraits of the king and queen; he also went to Italy twice, and made several acquisitions of works of art. On returning to England he obtained considerable employment, and married an Englishwoman. His wife, Hannah, was buried on January 27, 1702. According to Arnold Houbraken, he later took a mistress, who then ruined him with her extravagant habits, and ultimately left him in a state of dejection of body and mind that led to his ultimate decline.1 Jacob Campo Weyerman, who took much of his biographical material from Houbraken, states "Closterman had taken a beautiful mistress who, while he was away in the country, robbed him of his valuables and disappeared, actions which drove the painter into madness"2. He died in 1711, and was buried in Covent Garden churchyard. Among his works should be mentioned a whole-length portrait, formerly in the Guildhall, of Queen Anne in her coronation robes, wearing a crown, and carrying the orb and sceptre; this is similar to another portrait, engraved in mezzotint by John Faber, jun., and now in the National Portrait Gallery, where there is also a portrait of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, painted before he became a knight of the Garter, to which order he was elected in March 1702. Closterman also executed a family group of the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, with their children, viz. John, Marquis of Blandford, Lady Henrietta, Lady Ann, Lady Elizabeth, and Lady Mary Churchill. The members of the 1 Kloosterman biography in De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (1718) by Arnold Houbraken 2 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography family are assembled beneath a rich hanging curtain, on a raised dais; all the figures are of life size. This picture is now at Blenheim Palace, and it is particularly mentioned by Horace Walpole in his Anecdotes of Painting. It was most probably painted about the beginning of 1698. .