Background
Johann Jakob Schalch was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
Johann Jakob Schalch was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
He studied under the painter and stucco plasterer Johann Ulrich Schnetzler in Schaffhausen, and later under the animal painter Karl Wilhelm de Hamilton in Augsburg.
He was a contemporary of the Swiss painters Anton Graff, Jean Preudhomme, Angelica Kauffman, Jakob Emanuel Handmann, Johann Caspar Füssli. As a young man Schalch made study trips to Germany and France. In 1763 Schalch moved to Holland, where he painted the English Ambassador in Den Haag.
The painting depicts Ambassador York astride a horse.
This painting was his breakthrough and is regarded as his masterpiece. In 1773 Schalch returned to his hometown, Schaffhausen, he remained for the rest of his life.
He died at his residence, in the countryside known as "the Durstgraben" (near his beloved Rheinfall) in 1789. He had been nearly blind during his last years.
In 1754 Schalch moved to London, where he soon met and received commissions to paint for members of the Royal Court.