The Cavalry Officer

Painted during the 1780s, this portrait shows an experienced cavalry officer set against a blue sky background. He sports powdered hair and bushy eyebrows and wears a red coat heavy with silver braid and faced in lemon. The uniform suggests he may have been a Lieutenant-Colonel or a Colonel of the 11th Dragoons; they saw action during the French Revolutionary Wars.

In excellent condition, the portrait resides in the original gold frame, the reverse with an aperture of plaited brown hair within a foiled blue glass surround.

Beaumont had many strings to his bow. Born in 1774, he entered the Royal Academy Schools at the age of seventeen as J. Barber. He added Beaumont to his name during the 1820s possibly to mark a bequest. In addition to painting, he published a travelogue on Wales, took part in shooting competitions, and had a second career as an insurance magnate. He founded the Provident Institution and managed the Provident Life Assurance Company. Notwithstanding these responsibilities, he also found the time to be a magistrate and to sit on a grand jury.