This striking half-length portrait in an oval frame shows diplomat and minister Sir George Hamilton Seymour. Depicted in a formal pose, slightly turned to the left and facing the viewer, the sitter is placed against a red-patterned drapery. Sir George Hamilton Seymour was the eldest son of Lord George Seymour (1763–1848) and Isabella. He studied at Eton and Merton College, Oxford, receiving his MA in 1823. In 1817 he was appointed an attaché to the British legation at The Hague and from then on his career was focused on diplomacy. He was appointed as minister resident at Florence between 1830 and 1835. Seymour was also sent on missions to the court of Belgium and to St Petersburg. He served as envoy-extraordinary to Vienna in 1855 and was involved in the discussions which led to the end of the Crimean War. He died in 1865. A comparable portrait depicted by Joseph Morgan is in Merton College, University of Oxford.
