Help dating this Snook portrait please

[Mike in Cumbria]

Interesting image (thanks for letting me know it was here, Carol).

My own thoughts are as follows. Amateur artist, rather a professional painter, but reasonably well executed. As others have said, there is a lack of depth, and an overuse of black shadows (a better painter would have included some reflected colours to bring those shadows to life. Someone more knowledgeable than me should be able to date the clothing, but he looks to be in his twenties, and presumably wearing his most fashionable clothes for the portrait. My instinct would be 3x or possibly 4x GGfather.

Mike

[Treetotal]

Possibly 4th or 5th great grandfather.

It may not have been contemporay though - my initial mpression is that it was painted more recently than during either of those men's lifetimes.

It was the treatment of the dark shadows that made me question whether it was actually a painting or a black and white enlargement that had been hand tinted.

But if it is a later painting of the 4th or 5th Grandfather...what would the artist have used for reference?

Carol

[Ruskie]

That's what I was wondering Carol. An earlier portrait as reference perhaps? Does the portrait actually represent an ancestor or is it 'made up' (a figment of someone's imagination)?

(glad we are thinking along the same lines Mike  )

[wivenhoe]

So your grandmother does not know who the subject is?

"...It was left to her, by her father, my great-grandfather, who lived 1893-1959".

 If you mean that it was listed as goods, and part of his estate, and your grandmother was specifically named as beneficiary, maybe you can access his Will to see how it was  described..........ie ..."the picture in the hall of.........?

[wivenhoe]

Yes, possibly just a good story, embroidered with time.

I remember an old television program where the picture of "grandfather ' in the hall turned out to be Disraeli, and bought at a junk shop.

[Regorian]

Whatever it is, it's most likely 1830's fashions, see the large lapels. Google mens clothes 1830's images.

[paulanthony262003]

It definitely is a painting because it has texture, it is probably just my low resolution camera-phone filtering out the finer details.  Also, the painting hangs in the dark corner of my Nan's dining room, apparently to keep the paint from fading, so perhaps its dark location contributes to it appearing blacker or darker than it actually is.

My Nan told me that it was a private commission, painted by an amateur artist friend of the subject. At least that is what she was told be her father (my great-grandfather) anyway...

My Nan has apparently named me as the beneficiary of this painting in her will, so at some point in time I will have ample chance to discover more about its origins, but in the meanwhile I am interested to read the various opinions here.

Reading these replies so far, I am leaning toward it being my 4xgreat-grandfather (1832-1904).
He was the first generation to move to Bath in 1850, aged 18 similar to the subject, and the family have lived in Bath ever since.

Many thanks, Paul

[Mike in Cumbria]

My Nan told me that it was a private commission, painted by an amateur artist friend of the subject. At least that is what she was told be her father (my great-grandfather) anyway...

This sounds likely to me. I wish I had a painting of my relatives from that time - you're very lucky.