Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Seeman, Enoch
SEEMAN or ZEEMAN, ENOCH (1694–1744), portrait-painter, was born in 1694 at Danzig in Germany, where his father was settled as a painter. It is possible that the famous German ‘virtuoso’ painter, Balthasar Denner, who received some of his early instruction in painting at Danzig, may have been a pupil of Seeman's father, for some of Seeman's early paintings were executed in imitation of Denner's manner. Among these were a portrait of himself at the age of nineteen, and an old woman's head in which the wrinkles, hair, fabric of clothes, are delineated in the minute manner which is seen in Denner's works. Seeman was brought by his father, when young, to London, and practised there as a portrait-painter with great success. He resided in St. Martin's Lane, and at first styled himself ‘Enoch Seeman, junior.’ He was a good portrait-painter, and his portraits of ladies were much admired. The conventionalities, however, of costume and posture have destroyed the value of his portraits. His portraits or portrait-groups were sometimes on a very large scale, such as the imposing picture of the Lapland giant, Gaianus, painted in 1734, now at Dalkeith Palace, and the family group of Sir John Cust [q. v.] at Belton House, Grantham. Seeman frequently painted his own portrait, in which he is seen in an animated attitude, with long flowing hair. One example is in the royal picture gallery at Dresden, and was engraved by J. G. Schmidt. Another, with his daughter in boy's clothes, was at Strawberry Hill. A portrait by him of Sir Isaac Newton, formerly in the possession of Thomas Hollis, F.S.A., was engraved in mezzotint by J. MacArdell. Seeman also painted George II, Queen Caroline (a portrait of whom by him is in the National Portrait Gallery), and other members of the royal family. He died suddenly in 1744. His son, Paul Seeman, painted portraits and still life, and his three brothers were all painters and ingenious artists, one of whom, Isaac Seeman, died in London on 4 April 1751. The name is sometimes, but erroneously, spelt Zeeman.
[Vertue's Diaries (Brit. Mus. Addit. MSS. 23074, 23076, &c.); Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists.]