■y "y ]^miri' Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/artinscotlanditsOObrydrich Art in Scotland ITS ORIGIN AND PROGRESS BY ROBERT BRYDALL MASTER OF THE ST GEORGES ART SCHOOL OF GLASGOW WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCLXXXIX V LiOu^Mir^n'^^ i wUy yi/{ PREFACE. Some years ago, when collecting notes for a short series of Lectures on the History of Scottish Art, I was very forcibly impressed by the fact that a subject of so great importance had not hitherto been treated in a complete and systematic manner. The origin and development of art in Scotland, the history of its schools, the memoirs of its artists, and even the names of its most representative examples, have not before been recorded in one work ; and the student who wished to obtain a comprehensive view of the subject has had to painfully glean his information from a vast number of books, many of them only very remotely connected with art. Impressed by my own experiences of the obvious want of a succinct and complete History of Art in Scotland, and acting on the advice of gentlemen whose opinions I hold in respect, I have undertaken the book now laid before the public. The work has been carried on con ainore, in the very brief leisure of an artist daily engaged in teaching his profession, and without claim to literary experience. The care with which I have collected information, and the extent and variety of the illustrative facts which I have been able to bring together, will, I hope, atone for any defects in point of form. 216679 VI PREFACE. Originally I had intended to treat of the subject of painting only ; but as there are other branches of Art closely allied to, and which frequently overlap, the work of the painter, it would have been impossible to trace the progress of taste in Scotland without occasionally re- ferring to these, but I have not attempted to treat them in an exhaustive manner. In the biographical notices of recent artists, the difficulty had to be encountered of making a representative selection and avoiding a mere dictionary of artists ; some whose names are now almost forgotten have been included on account of the influence which they exercised in their time, while others better known to their contemporaries have been omitted. This reference is due also to the talents of such artists as Messrs Manson, Anderson, and P. W. Nicholson, whose brief lives prevented the full develop- ment of their talent. ^M Care has been taken to quote the sources of information ^ and the acknowledgment generally of extracts. In the latter part of the subject, the ' Art Journal,' among other contemporary works, has been freely drawn upon. In placing the History of Scottish Art before the public, my object has been to fill a blank in our national literature, and to place on record the successive steps by which Art in Scotland has attained its present high pre-eminence. It is somewhat of a reproach that such a work has not been undertaken before, and by a higher authority than I can claim to be. ROBERT BRYDALL. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Celtic art — Standing-stones — Early symbdls — Irish illuminations — Sculptured crosses — Sepulchral stones — Early figure-sculpture — Early churches — Celtic metal-work — Decline of Celtic art, . . i CHAPTER II. Progress of art from the thirteenth century — Early charter at Floors Castle — Psalters and missals — William the Lion — Architecture — Sculptured figures and tombs — Queen Margaret — Painters and art- workmen — David II. — Anecdote of the Princess ^gidia — Houston pictures — Fifteenth-century tombs and effigies — ^James I. — Armo- rials — Linlithgow sculptures, &c. — James 11. — Chapel- Royal at Stirling — Fifteenth-century paintings — Trinity Church and Holy- rood altar-piece — Pictures in Fowhs Easter Church, . . . 13 CHAPTER III. Supposed Scottish portrait of Joan of Arc — ^James IV. and tomb of his father — Mynour the painter — Ledger of Andrew Halyburton — Ex- pedition of James V. to France — Sixteenth-century wood-carving — Native painters in time of James V. — Portraits — Paintings in in- teriors — Banner found at Pinkie field — Bishop Reid and Andrew Bairhum, 44 CHAPTER IV. Late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries— Queen Mary — Her por- traits — ^John Acheson — ^James VI. — His reception in Edinburgh — Baptism of Prince of Wales in 1594— Late sixteenth-century por- traits — Criminal art — Arnold Bronkhorst — Esther Inglis — Holyrood decorations for James VI., . . ... . 58 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. George Jamesone — Destruction of art-work in the seventeenth century — Painted screen in Elgin Cathedral — Lord Traquair's popish trinkets— Holyrood portraits by De Witt— Early topographers — Alexander Alesse — Gordon of Straloch — Seventeenth-century archi- tects — William Schaw — David Anderson — The Mylnes — Sir William Bruce — William Wallace — WiUiam Aytoun, ... 74 CHAPTER VI. Late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries — ^John Scougal — Cor- rudes — Hude — Paton — Wait — Sir John Medina — John Medina — Thomas Murray — William Ferguson — J. Michael Wright— Office of King's Limner — ^John Alexander — William Aikman — ^John Smibert — The Norries — Milton House decorations — Academy of St Luke in Edinburgh — Richard Cooper the engraver, .... 92 CHAPTER Vn. ■ Late eighteenth century — Allan Ramsay — The Academy of the brothers ^ Foulis of Glasgow — Notice of its pupils — David Allan — ^James and William Tassie, 114 CHAPTER VHL Edinburgh Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Sciences, and Manu- factures — The Board of Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh, . . 140 CHAPTER IX. Late eighteenth -century painters — Gavin Hamilton — ^Jacob More — Cunningham — Alexander and John Runciman — ^John Donaldson — David Martin — George Willison — Archibald Skirving — ^John Brown — William Robinson — Sir George Chalmers — Mrs Blackwell, . 154 CHAPTER X. Architecture and sculpture in' the eighteenth and early nineteenth cen- turies — Colin Campbell — William Adam — James Gibbs — The Adams — James Craig — William Stark, &c. — John Henning — Samuel Josephs — William Mossman — John Greenshields — ^James Thorn — Robert Forrest — Thomas Campbell — Lawrence Mac- donald, &c 173 CONTENTS. ix CHAPTER XI. Early Scottish engravers— Clarke — Elder — Richard Cooper — Sir Robert Strange — Joshua Campbell — Andrew Bell — Francis Legat — Alex- ander Robertson — Robert Scott — W. Douglas — James Stewart — Mitchell — Kay — Beugo — John Burnet — Lizars — Geikie — Crombie — Horsburgh — Somerville — Howison, &c. — William Berry, , . 193 CHAPTER XII. Formation of the Modern School of Painting — Portrait-painters of the early nineteenth century — John Bogle — Sir Henry Raeburn — George Watson — Sir John Watson Gordon — Andrew Geddes — William Nicholson — James Tannock — John Graham Gilbert — Colvin Smith — ^John and Patrick Syme — William Smellie Watson — T. Eraser — Saxon — ^J. S. Harvie — Nairne — Yellowlees — George Sanders — William Douglas — W. J. Thomson — Alexander Robertson — Antony Stewart — Margaret Gillies, 217 CHAPTER XIII. Painters of history and genre of the early nineteenth century — John Graham — Sir David Wilkie — Alexander Fraser — Alexander Carse — James Burnet — William Kidd — Sir William Allan — Alexander Chisholm — ^John Steven, ........ 249 CHAPTER XIV. Landscape-painting in the early nineteenth century — The Nasmyths — G. Walker — Thomson of Duddingston — H. W. Williams — J. F. WiUiams — Andrew Wilson — ^John Wilson — The Schetkys — Ewbank — P. Gibson — Gibb — Gilfillan — Donaldson — Barker — David Roberts, 280 CHAPTER XV. Society of Incorporated Artists, 1808 — Early exhibitions in Edinburgh — Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts — Royal Scottish Academy, 324 CHAPTER XVI. The National Gallery of Scotland— The National Portrait Gallery- Private collections of works by the old masters, .... 350 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVII. Painting in Glasgow — Glasgow Corporation Collection — Hunterian Museum Collection — Smith Institute at Stirling — Erskine Collection at Culross — Local exhibitions — Art Unions, 35J Biographical and Critical Notices of the Leading deceased Scottish Painters, 1800-1889, 375 1 Appendix — ■ List of Members of the Royal Scottish Academy (till 1888), . . 473 Index, 479 ART IN SCOTLAND, CHAPTER I. Celtic art — Standing -stones — Early symbols — Irish illuminatiotts — Sculptured crosses — Sepulchral stones — Early figure - sculpture — Early chtirches — Celtic metal-work — Decline of Celtic art. When Columba in the sixth century received the gift of lona from the western King Connal, and with his few followers began to culti- vate some portion of that lonely and barren island, the first symp- toms of the dawn of art with that of civilisation began to appear in Scotland. The humble and rudely built edifice, with its primi- tive altar, which served as their chapel, after many vicissitudes gave place to the venerable cathedral still standing beside its stone effigies of forgotten kings and sculptured crosses of almost mythical saints, from whence " savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion." For centuries before and after the landing of Columba and his fellow- missionaries, up till about the twelfth, Scotland is considered as having been purely a Celtic kingdom, inhabited by different branches of the same race in process of being civilised by the early Culdees or Keledei, the last mention of whom as a Church occurs in 1332. A 2 ART IN SCOTLAND. As in nearly all other countries, the most ancient evidences of art effort are to be found in the early stone monuments, which far antedate written or even reliable traditional history. In the unhewn blocks of stone still to be found standing in almost every part of the country, we see the first intentions of monumental art, belonging to a period in which the native dwellings were probably constructed of timber, with possibly a lower base wall of upright slabs of unhewn stones. There is every reason for supposing that these isolated stones were erected to identify some spot remarkable for a victory gained, or to mark the grave of some deceased hero, whose actions were thus meant to be commemorated by his suc- cessors, their stone implements being inadequate to do more than separate the rude monument from its parent quarry. As civilisation progressed and tools of metal began to replace the smaller ones of stone, efforts were made towards enriching these with circular-shaped hollows, irregularly sunk on the face of the stone, or incised designs of strange curvature suggestive of the tattoo forms used by the natives of New Zealand, with sym- bolic shapes more or less ornate, the meanings of which still baffle the researches of the most ingenious investigators. In the history of the early Christian Church in Scotland, a peculiar veneration was sometimes attached to particular stones. It is known that the principal Irish missionaries sometimes carried about with them a slab or block of stone, to be used as an altar for the celebration of the Eucharist, and which, when used by any celebrated saint and left in some locality, became an object of veneration. ^ The well-known coronation-stone of Scotland is an instance, concern- ing which Mr Skene relates how the boy-king Alexander, when he was crowned at Scone in 1249, was led by his nobles up to a cross in the cemetery, and placed upon the coronation - stone, which was covered with silken cloth interwoven with gold, and consecrated king. The same author mentions the standing-stone near to a cairn on the farm of Whisgills, in the vicinity of Milnholm on the Liddel, at which latter place a cross was erected — probable 1 Skene's Celtic Scotland. SCULPTURED STONES. 3 memorials of the battle between Aidan and Aedilfrid, in which the latter was defeated, in 603 ; also, two high upright stones near the river a few miles above Dunkeld, the supposed locality of the battle of Seguise, fought a.d. 635. It has with reason been conjectured that some of these pagan stones were replaced by early Christian monuments and crosses, on the same principle that Christian churches were erected on heathen sites, and pagan symbols combined with the cross. Various circumstances, apart from mere tradition, go to prove that the standing-stones were venerated prior to the introduction of Christianity into Scotland by the Culdees. Mr Skene, referring to Fiace's poem, speaks of the "gentiles" adoring the elements in the shape of idols, adding that the word "darkness" is glossed by *'the worship of idols," and also that the few notices we have of such indicate that these idols were usually pillar stones.^ The earliest historical reference to the sculptured stones of Scotland occurs in the writings of the sometimes unreliable Boece, who tells us that King Reutha, about two hundred years B.C., was the first Scottish king who made rich sepultures for the bodies of those slain in defence of their country, and erected so many stones about his grave as the hero had slain of his foes in battle. The same writer refers to the markings and figures on such, as the symbols of the dead language of a people whose rites were derived from those of the Egyptians.^ The devices most frequently occur- ring on rude pillars, oblong slabs, and in a few cases on erect cruciform stones, are what is known as the spectacle ornament, formed by two circles, sometimes enclosing others more or less complicated, and connected by a bar of horizontal or curved lines, frequently traversed by the sceptre, as it is called, in the form of the letter Z reversed, its extremities being variously foliated; single and double crescents variously arranged, at times combined with the sceptre differently formed; combinations of circles; horse-shoe and torque-shaped figures ; serpents, fishes, and walrus or elephantine - looking animals, often enriched with interlaced ^ Celtic Scotland. " Stuart's Sculptured Stones. ART IN SCOTLAND. work. Numerous other figures of a more intelligible meaning occur, such as mirror and comb-like forms, hammers, anvils, and tongs, some of which, however, may be after all of no very great antiquity. In support of the assumption that these figures had a definite meaning, it has to be noted that while similar forms perpetually recur on different stones, the arrangement continually varies, as well as the filling in with lines and patterns. In some cases the sceptre, for instance, is two or three times repeated on the same stone, in each case with a slight change of form. With regard to these s)anbols, it has also to be noted that some of them are not exclusively confined to sculptured stones, of which several instances might be mentioned. Thus, the spectacle and sceptre with a scrolled animal's head appears on an oval-shaped silver plate of about three inches in length, forming a portion of the so- called silver armour of Norrie's Law ; a corresponding circle, simi- larly divided to one of the eyes of the spectacle, is carved on a flat piece of ash-wood about five inches square, which was found along with a canoe and paddle in a crannog at Loch Lee — the uses of either of which are unknown. ^ Efi"orts have been made to connect these symbols with Buddhist emblems, but it cannot be said with much success, although great ingenuity has been exercised in associating the inscription which accompanies the supposed con- temporaneous Oghams on the Newton stone with ancient Sanskrit, thus to some extent corroborating the tradition mentioned by Boece. Those emblems which exist on pre-Christian stones may not improbably be yet traced to a remote southern origin, but they were evidently perpetuated into a comparatively late period, when they came to be enriched by forms similar to those so often occur- ring in the Irish illuminations and other similar works, extending from probably the seventh century.^ The early Christianisation of Ireland may be said to have entirely influenced the Celtic art of Scotland. From probably the sixth till the end of the eighth century in Ireland, that country possessed and practised a style of its own — very markedly in its ^ Scottish Antiquaries' Museum. ^ Compare with the Book of Kells, &c. SCULPTURED STONES. 5 illuminations — in which much ingenuity is displayed in the beauti- ful and elaborate interlacements of lines, spirals coiling one within another, with various lacertine animals, the extremities of which form long narrow bands twisted and interlaced. It is usually admitted that Columba, or at least some of his early followers, introduced this style of art in the form of illuminating into Scot- land by lona, and from thence to Lindisfarne, from whence, and by the Irish mission to Glastonbury, it spread into England.^ Scattered throughout various libraries and abbatical institutions on the Continent, such as those at Milan, Metz, Ratisbon, and Wurzburg, are works which Irish antiquaries claim as the produc- tions of the companies of Irish monks who travelled thus far from the monastery founded by Columba. Thus, from the seventh century onwards, the numerous carved Scottish stones and crosses bear this character, as well as the many fine objects of personal adornment, such as brooches and pins, and even perpetuated till the present day in the hilt of the Highland dirk. Antiquarian study has shown that while there are characteristics common to all the sculptured stones of Ireland, Wales, the Isle of Man, and Scandinavia, those of Scotland assimilate most closely with similar Irish work, mostly contemporaneous, and point unerringly to the more intimate connection existing between the natives of Scotland and Ireland, than between those of the northern and southern parts of the now United Kingdom ; also, that they cannot safely be set down to Norwegian settlers.^ On none of the Danish stones in Man or Scandinavia do the symbols appear which are so frequent on those of Scotland, while the Runic inscriptions on some bear the Scandinavian names of those concerned in their erection as memorial gravestones. Several instances are on record of the causes of the erection of sculptured crosses in Scotland. Concerning the once numerous ^ Digby Wyatt's Art of Illuminating. M. Lacroix, who treats of it rather imperfectly in his 'Arts au Moyen Age,' like several others, classes the Irish illuminations out of Ireland and Scotland as Anglo-Saxon. ^ Stuart's Sculptured Stones. 6 ART IN SCOTLAND. crosses at lona, Adamnan tells us that Ernan, who was Columba's uncle, and presided over the settlement which he had founded in the island of Hinba, feeling himself seriously unwell, desired to be taken back to Columba in lona, who set out from his cell to the landing-place to meet him. Ernan, though feeble, attempted to walk from the landing-place to meet Columba, but when there were only twenty paces between them, suddenly died before reaching the gate Canabae. " On the spot where he died a cross was raised before the door of the kiln, and another where Colum- ba stood." Adamnan also mentions the erection of a third at a spot where Columba rested on the wayside, on returning from blessing a bam, shortly before his death. In further illustration of the same, it is chronicled as having been the custom of St Kentigern to erect a cross at any place where he had made con- verts : a large one was thus erected at Glasgow, and another at Borthwick. When St Cuthbert withdrew from the monastery at Dul in Athol, and began to lead his solitary Hfe on the summit of the high and steep mountain of Doilweme, his first work was to erect a large stone cross ; and in Ireland, in corroboration of what has already been said, the custom is mentioned of St Patrick having consecrated the existing heathen stone pillars to Christian uses, followed by the erection of crosses. The great number of such erections during the time of the early Church is still further accounted for by the fact that the sign of the cross was very generally employed as a signum salutare, and endowed with such virtues as the power of banishing demons, restraining river monsters, protecting from wild beasts, &c. ; hence the readi- ness to erect a substantial vexillum crucis on the site of any remarkable occurrence.^ At a later period than the first use of the devices referred to, figures often occur of robed priests, occasionally with peaked beards; men armed, on horseback, or shooting with bows and arrows; others seated as if in judgment, in procession with oxen, or being devoured by animals ; with an innumerable variety of ^ Stuart's Sculptured Stones. Adamnan's Life of St Columba. SCULPTURED STONES. 7 grotesque monsters and animals, many of the latter being then unknown in Scotland, and the representations of which bear evidence that the carver was reproducing a traditional type or form of what he had never seen the reality. Scriptural subjects are common on crosses and other carvings, and many of the subjects referred to can easily be interpreted by any student of iconography Thus, the repeatedly occurring figure standing or sitting between leonine animals points to the story of Daniel in the den of lions, — one which would appeal strongly to the feelings of a semi-civilised race, and serve the early missionaries of religion with a striking illustration of the efficacy of faith in Divine pro- tection in circumstances of personal danger. On the stone slab which forms part of the St Andrews sarcophagus, and described in Dr Wilson's ' Archaeology ' as a Pictish hunting-scene, the most prominent figure is represented in the act of rending the jaws of a lion. This, no doubt, was meant for Samson ; and the other figures on the same may be assumed to have Scriptural meanings. " It is strange," remarks the authoress of ' Early Christian Art in Ireland,' " to find a scene from the Dance of Death upon a carved stone in the churchyard of Soroby in the island of Tiree j or to see, upon a cross in the island of Harris, angels carrying souls through the air, and poor sinners torn to pieces in hell, after the manner of the resurrection angels and death-demons of the Campo Santa at Pisa." 1 Throughout these sculptures there is a distinctive char- acter, besides being full of a rich inventive fancy, which entirely separates them from the more elegant and refined form of the southern sculptor's art of the same period nurtured under Byzan- tine influence. With regard to the Scottish sepulchral stones, there are a great many to which a fictitious antiquity is sometimes too readily ascribed. Mr Billings remarks of the lona stones, that what is very remarkable about some is, that with certain sculptured forms, believed to be very ancient when found on stones in other parts of the country, they have undoubted marks of much later origin — ^ Early Christian Art in Ireland. Margaret Stokes : 1887. ARt'iN SCOTLAND. indeed, some which in other respects show characteristics ol extreme age, are inscribed with a date in the seventeenth century.! Among such, and in other parts of Scotland, are many effigies of Highland chiefs whose ambition it was to appear in the character of Norman knights; and a document written between 1577 and 1595 mentions, in regard to the burying-place at lona, " in this are all the gentlemen of the Isles buryit as yet." ^ ] Probably the earliest specimens of ecclesiastical figure-sculpture which Scotland possesses, are those on the Celtic tower at Brechin. Rude and small — some twenty inches or so in height — they consist of a crucifixion in the position which the keystone would occupy on a larger arch, with the figure of an ecclesiastic on each of the jambs, and two crouching animals of Celtic char- acter at the base. The date of the tower is uncertain : some assume it as being of the eighth century, but perhaps it would be safer to put it two or three centuries later, contemporaneous with the commencement of the adjoining church.^ The crucified figure is not cross-legged, the crossing of the limbs not having been adopted in such representations till the early fourteenth century. On the well-known similar doorway on the round tower of Donough- more, in Ireland, there are only heads on the jambs in addition to the crucifixion. Among other similar work of that far-back period not now existing, may be mentioned a little church at Abernethy of probably the eighth century, on which the nine virgins and the miracles of Dovenald are said to have been sculptured.* The beautiful and interesting twelfth-century church at Dal- meny contains a curious example of the transition of Celtic into Norman art. In this fine specimen of old architecture, while Nor- man carvers may possibly have been employed, the native Celtic art is perpetuated, especially on the flat inner moulding on the main- entrance doorway, on which, as well as in the intervals between the projecting heads on the outer moulding, appear the hippocampus and other curious animals so often occurring on Celtic stones. ^ Ecclesiastical and Baronial Antiquities. ^ Skene's Celtic Scotland. ' Anderson's Scotland in Early Times. ^ Ibid. CELTIC CHURCHES. 9 Prior to the eighth century there cannot be said to have been any architecture in Scotland. Such church buildings as then existed were probably very similar to those of Ireland, where the true arch seems to have come into use in the ninth century, and were probably of the simplest and rudest type. In Conchubran's Life of Monenna we are told that she founded a monastery (in Ireland), ''which was made of smooth planks, according to the fashion of the Scottish natives, who were not accustomed to erect stone walls, or to get them erected." ^ Bede mentions that Naiton, the Pictish king, in 710 sent messengers to Abbot Ceolfrid, of the monastery of Peter and Paul at Jarrow-on-Tyne, desiring, among other requests, to have architects sent him to build a church in his nation after the Roman manner. About fifty years later Bishop Regulus, with the relics of St Andrew, met King Hungus, who did the relics honour, and " gave the place to God and St Andrew, and builds a church there. The king then crosses the Mounth and comes to Monichi, where he builds a church, and after that to Chilrymont, where he dedicated a large part of that place to God and St Andrew, for the purpose of building churches and oratories." ^ There does not seem to have been any architectural feature connected with church build- ing till probably the tenth century, when the round towers began to appear, which no doubt were meant as places for the protec- tion of church valuables from the rapacity of uncivilised maraud- ers. A passage in the Life of St Tenenan of Brittany,^ where such towers seemed to have been connected with churches so early as the seventh century, suggests the idea that these towers reached Ireland from that district, and so became introduced into Scodand. Their earlier origin must be left to the investigations of the cultured architect, to whom the early Italian and French types are familiar. Traces of Saxon sculpture in Scotland are extremely rare, and ^ Skene's Celtic Scotland. 2 Legendary— from Skene's Celtic Scotland. Chilrymont is the modern St Andrews. ^ Quoted in Early Christian Art in Ireland (Margaret Stokes). 10 ART IN SCOTLAND. its remains are exclusively confined to the more southern counties, such as Dumfriesshire, where an interesting specimen in the form of the shaft of a Saxon cross was discovered in Hoddam church in 1 8 15. This fragment, which is less than three feet in height, contains on the front the probable figure of the Saviour with an aureole and a book, half figures of saints on the sides, the back containing a roughly chiselled pattern of the interlaced work common to Scotland. It is attributed to the twelfth century. Extremely beautiful and interesting, especially as works of art, the many specimens of Celtic metal- work testify to the skill and taste of the early artificer. Early weapons or tools show great elegance of form as well as appropriate enrichment. There seems to have been no scarcity of the precious metals in Scotland in prehistoric times. Malcolm Canmore had a large quantity of gold and silver plate ; and so early as 930 a silver shrine for the gospels was executed at St Andrews, which is stated to have been the work of native artificers.^ The many fine specimens of this branch of ancient Scottish art which form such an attractive feature in the museum of the Scottish Antiquarian Society, were mostly exe- cuted between the ninth and eleventh centuries ; but a detailed account of such works belongs rather to the labour of the archae- ologist than to the chronicler of the progress of art. The most frequently appearing works of this class are the buckles or brooches, which were worn by both sexes, the size and value of which were in proportion to the rank or wealth of the wearer. These are of gold, silver, and of a mixture of copper and tin known as white bronze. They are wrought with panels of elaborate interlaced patterns, resembling raised or implanted filigree-work, varied by projections with terminating crystals or other stones. The Glenlyon brooch and the historical brooch of Lorn are well- known examples of this class of art-work : with these may be mentioned the two Cadboll brooches just added to the museum of the Scottish Antiquaries, the finest known specimens in Scot- land, and inferior in point of decoration only to the Tara brooch 1 Mr R. W. Cochran Patrick's Early Scotland. CELTIC METAL-WORK. II in the museum of the Irish Academy at Dublin. Prominent among the ecclesiastical art antiquities of the early Christian period, not only on account of its curious history, but of its great beauty also, is the splendid "quigrich" or pastoral-staff head of St Fillan, which may be said to stand alone as representing the early Scottish crosier in an artistic sense.^ It is similar in form to the Irish crosiers, somewhat like an inverted L, and consists of the original wooden staff enriched with metals, and the outer case or shrine of silver, elaborately wrought, of a somewhat later period. It is said that, according to ancient custom, it was carried by the Scottish army at the battle of Bannockburn, after which it re- mained in the custody of the Dewars of Strathfillan till the present century, when it was acquired a few years ago from a descendant in America, and placed in the museum of Scottish Antiquaries.^ Almost equally rare in Scotland are the bell covers or shrines, only two important specimens of which are known. As examples of early art, neither is of equal importance with the St Patrick's bell shrine in Armagh. These consist of the well-known Guthrie bell shrine, of a Byzantine type, with raised implanted figures; and the Kilmichael Glassary bell shrine, of rather Norman char- acter, possibly of the eleventh or twelfth century.^ The establishment of an independent Scoto-Norwegian kingdom by Harold in the northern and western isles, which lasted more than a century and a half after the closing years of the ninth century, diminished the direct intercourse with Scandinavia proper, and led to some mixture of the Celtic and Scandinavian races. To this period belong the many objects bearing a Scandinavian character, blended with native Celtic art, such as the Hunterston Runic brooch, and many of the carved stones, among which might perhaps be included the fine Ruthwell cross. From King David's time the old Celtic art lost its sway, to be succeeded by the early Norman or ecclesiastic. The fraternities ^ The Bachuil-More is denuded of all its enrichments. 2 " Dewar " or " Doihre " was the title of the keeper. 3 Compare with mitre of Thomas a Becket, Labarte's Hand-Book. 12 ART IN SCOTLAND. of St Serf and the Culdees were superseded by monasteries, and new relations began to take form in parts of the country, by which the southern districts of the kingdom became more important as places of strength for defending the country from English incur- sions. Although the Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastic edifices which were built in England before the Norman Conquest were larger than those in Scotland, they were probably equally rude, and this might also apply to any sculpture by which they were enriched. Con- cerning the architecture of France during the glorious period of the thirteenth century, of the many still existing churches of that time, they were not commenced till the early twelfth century, and not completed till after the fourteenth. ^ In the south of Europe art was dead in a sense during the tenth century, at the end of which, the fears of the world coming to an end passing away, with other operative causes, gave the first great impetus to the more modern development of literature as well as the fine arts. In the outlying districts of Argyleshire and other northern parts of Scotland, the gradual transition of Scottish art of this period can best be studied in its scattered vestiges, and the teachings of the Christian religion as a message of peace become manifest on the tombs of ancient warriors and the remains of early churches. The figures of helmeted knights grasping spears are to be found side by side with those of ecclesiastics, and others of a later date, in the act of returning their swords to their sheaths, their battles being over and a life of rest about to begin — different from the old pagan ideas of daily fights followed by nightly carouses. These again are succeeded by others, on which, under a more matured form of Christianity, the sword is left reposing in its sheath, the head, clad only in its basenet and camail, resting on crested helmet, the eyes closed, and the hands pressed together in prayer- ful action, with a lion or other animal writhing under the armed heel. ^ Anderson's Scotland in Early Times. 13 CHAPTER II. Progress of art from the thirteenth century — Early charter at Floors Castle — Psalter and missals — William the Lion — Architecture — Sculptured figures and tombs — Queen Margaret — Painters and art -workmen — David II. — Anecdote of the Priitcess ^gidia — Houston pictures — Fifteenth - century tombs and effigies — James I. — Armorials — Linlithgow sctilptures, &'c. — James II. — Chapel Royal at Stirling — Fifteenth-centtiry paintings — Trinity Church and Holyrood altar-piece — Picttires in Fowlis Easter Church. The gradual spreading of religion in Scotland developed the growth of religious communities, and in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries masons, carvers, and painters were at work on many a monastery and abbey, from whence a love and admiration for art spread abroad, culminating in the noble cathedrals with their internal decorations of a later period. The early monasteries, unlike what they were when corruption had crept into their re- cesses some centuries later, were great and useful agencies in the civilisation of the country, giving a home to the peaceful and studious monks, gathering round them the extensive granges which afforded a dweiling-place to the serfs or carls who tilled the land, and wherein were kept their stores and implements; the mills driven by wind or water; and the hamlets of the cotters and others more or less mutually dependent with the monastery or abbey. In the monastery itself, the lamp of knowledge was kept from fading entirely throughout ages of dense intellectual dark- ness. Within the quiet seclusion of its cloisters, youths were educated for the services of the State as well as for the offices of the Church ; and, besides being almost the only proficients in 14 ART IN SCOTLAND. reading and writing, the monks may be said to have possessed exclusively any knowledge of mechanics, gardening, and architec- ture.^ The construction of one of the great abbeys, such as that of Kelso or Jedburgh, came to be of such importance, that not unfrequently one century was insufficient for its completion ; and thus the inmates or natives, either instructed abroad or by working alongside of the more skilful craftsmen from another district, or perhaps even another country, could not fail to get educated so as to become artists themselves. Not only did the monks illu- minate their gospels and other manuscripts, carve their stalls and screens, but they also very probably designed their cathedrals, as it is to be noted that, abroad as well as at home, the names of the original designers or architects of these are never mentioned in contemporary records. The earliest as well as the highest efforts of art have in all , countries in times past been devoted to the services of religion, Dy erecting the noblest edifices which were possible for divine worship, and creating aids to personal devotion. Few traces of our earlier artists, and seldom even their names, have survived till the present day ; but that there were some, we have sufficient evidence in the existence of a few works which have escaped the effect of time, the ravages of wars in which nearly every town experienced sacking and burning, and the more destructive violence of religious reformers, besides occasional references in contemporaneous documents. Scotland at an early period in her history must have reached a much higher state of civilisation than the superficial reader of history sometimes too hastily assumes, and was in many respects probably not very far behind some other countries of more pretentious assumptions. When St Louis of France projected his crusade in the thirteenth century, the Earl of Pol, one of his nobles, had a large ship of the kind called navt's miranda built at Inverness, for the purpose of conveying the horses and accoutrements of his men-at-arms — thus implying a certain amount of skill in at least some of the natives. Some foreign 1 Dalrymple's Annals, &c. EARLY ART-WORK. 1 5 workmen were sent to assist or direct the work, and it is probable that the advantage of the locality in the possession of the neces- sary timber led to the construction there of such ships. ^ The seals of our early kings and prelates are frequently of high quality as works of art, showing considerable skill in the treatment of the figure, alone or in combination with traceried ornament. The coins of the early moneyers of Berwick, Perth, and Edinburgh are very little more rude in their art than those of England of the same period; but those minted in the reign of James V. are of very high quality, and there is no reason for assuming that they are not the results of native skill, although Bonaccio of Florence is known to have executed some of the gold pieces of Robert III. Of stained glass, almost the only fragments left in Scotland are those pertaining to the old Maison Dieu^ in Edinburgh, containing the Scottish arms and those of the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, encircled respectively by a wreath of thistles and laurel, with other armorial bearings, and the figure of St Bartholomew, who has strangely escaped from the destruction of his brother apostles there in 1559. In these fragments, while the figure is inferior to the other parts, the deep ruby and bright yellow on the Royal arms exhibit traces of a bold broad manipu- lation and richness of colour, showing a good appreciation of the old glass-stainer's work.^ Of the art of wood-carving, of which we have comparatively few important examples left, those of the six- teenth century in Dunblane Cathedral, King's College (Aberdeen), and the church at Fowlis Easter, are evidences of Scottish skill in this department : also with these may be instanced the remains, among other fragments, from the private oratory of Mary of Lor- raine, several of which were adopted as models for the carved work in the interior fittings of the present Dunrobin Castle. To the numerous and tasteful examples of baronial architecture which are scattered all over the country it is unnecessary to refer ; but it is ^ Cosmo Innes. 2 Church of S. Mary Magdalene, Cowgate. ^ Dr Wilson's Memorials of Edinburgh ; and the Proceedings of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries. l6 ART IN SCOTLAND. ve fnr^^l only reasonable to suppose that when so much skill and love for - art was bestowed on the exterior, the equally important internal decorations would not be quite neglected. Neither was the sculptor's art unappreciated in the baronial edifices of Scotland, although we seem to have few remains of such. At Linlithgow Palace, for instance, are several figures of angels, which for spirit and execution will compare favourably with any similar work of the period north of the Alps. , Of the more specific subject of painting it is not surprising that the destructive causes already mentioned should have left us scarcely any specimens, and we are therefore compelled in too many cases to be content with the mere mention of the former existence of such in records and inventories which have been pre- served by antiquarian zeal. It must be recollected that the old artist in Scotland, as in many other countries, did not follow his art in the distinct form in which it came to be recognised at a later and in our present time. He might paint a portrait, coat of arms, or altar-piece, or decorate and gild a wall or ceiling; and it would not be surprising to find that the painter of some highly prized devotional picture should also have been employed to carve and paint " the auld stock image " which Sir David Lindsay tells us was borne annually through the streets of Edinburgh by priests and friars, accompanied * ' With talbrone, trumpet, schalme, and clarion," till destroyed by the populace in one of its peregrinations, when, in the words of Knox, "one took the idol by the heels, and dadding his head to the street, left Dagon without head or hands."! The early penmen and miniaturists practising their art in the quiet of the monastic scriptorium were considered a separate body, and when the early guilds were formed in Italy, France, and Flanders in the fourteenth century, the penmen were not included. To the works of the early miniaturists, now so carefully treasured 1 Tytler's Scotch Worthies. CHARTER OF MALCOLM IV. 1 7 in the cabinets of the wealthy connoisseur, we no doubt owe the development of the very early taste for painting in Scotland as in several other countries ; and in one of these still preserved at Floors Castle, we have what may safely be considered the oldest speci- men of the painter's art in the kingdom. This is the charter in which Malcolm IV. ratifies the endowments of his grandfather, David I., to the Tironensian Abbey of St Mary the Virgin and St John the Evangelist, of Kelso, which was founded by that "sair sanct for the Crown." ^ In this magnificent charter, undoubtedly the finest in Scotland in point of writing and illumi- nating now existing, the Gothic initial of the king's name is made to form, by its two semi-elliptical sides, borders containing two figures, the central bar of the M being formed of intertwined serpents. Within the first of these compartments is represented an aged monarch arrayed in a crimson mantle against a blue back- ground, throned and crowned, and bearing in his hands a sword and the globe of sovereignty. Within the other is a young beard- less king, also throned and crowned, cross-legged, robed in red, with a green mantle against a red ground, bearing in his hand the sceptre of dominion, and the sword of office resting across his knees, the whole being enriched with gold. The charter is dated 1 159, and there is no doubt that these are meant for portraits of the reigning prince and his grandfather, the latter having died six years before, and Malcolm being then in his seventeenth year. Whether this and the charters written in the succeeding reign, which are of remarkable elegance, are the result of native skill educated in Scotland or in France, it is impossible to determine : the only penman whose name is mentioned about that period is that of " Stephen the Writer," which appears as witness to a deed in connection with the Abbey of Kelso. Of a rather earlier period than this, there is preserved in the Advocates' Library a Jerome's Latin Bible, illuminated on vellum, containing paintings of sacred and other subjects, which serves to show that even at that early period the services of the Church in ^ Facsimiles in Anderson's Diplomata, 1739; and Bannatyne Club, 1846. B 1 8 ART IN SCOTLAND. Scotland were not destitute of art. There is no reason, however, for supposing that this is the work of a native artist, the tradition being that it was brought from Canterbury by the Abbot Gaufrid, at the date of the foundation of the Abbey of Dunfermhne in 1 1 24, in which abbey it was in use till its destruction in 1560, when Abbot Drury carried it to France, as happened with many other similar Scottish art-treasures. It subsequently came into the possession of Mons. Foucalt, at the sale of whose collection it was bought by a patriotic Scot and gifted to the Library in which it now is. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries such works were not uncommon in the religious services, many of which were undoubtedly the work of native artists. A richly illuminated Psalter of the fourteenth century, said to be executed by the monks of Dulce Cor, is still preserved at Kirkconnel ; ^ and there may be also further mentioned the Psalter of the parish church of St Ternan of Arbuthnott, and the Liber Beati Terranani, a folio of two hundred and forty-six leaves of vellum, enriched by initials, and miniatures with well-designed borders of familiar Scottish flowers and fruits, tolerably well executed, in addition to a pontifi- cal figure of St Ternan. The Liber as well as the Psalter was written by James Sibbald, at the cost of Robert Arbuthnott, who died in 1560, in which family it still remains. A later hand has written the following inscription : " Nota obitum Domini Jacobi Sibbald quondam Vicarii de Arbuthnot Scribe publici satis correcti testantibus. Missalibus huius ecclesie Sancti Terrenani : xj Kalendas Septembris anno Domini M™° Vcvij'"^," &c. A record in the Register House at Edinburgh mentions six missals which had belonged to Queen Mary having been burned by the hands of the Regent Murray, at the time when the jewels of that unfor- tunate queen were taken possession of: "tayne be my Lordis Grace and brint vj Mess Buikis." The great historical events so well known as occurring in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, were not such as to be con- ducive to the development of art or the preservation of art-work. ^ In possession of Mr Withora. PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM THE LION. I9 There were probably some curious and interesting examples among the charters and other documents transmitted to England, and lost or destroyed in substantiating King Edward's claim to the sovereignty of the kingdom. The interesting history of the ex- tremely beautiful " quigrich," or pastoral-staff head of St Fillan, is an instance of how such works were cared for, as well as the risks to which they were exposed. The Trinity Hall of Aberdeen, the locus of several specimens of old Scottish art, contains an extremely old portrait — not so old as was at one time supposed, but still of a venerable an- tiquity, now so repainted as to be quite valueless. It is that of William the Lion, and represents the monarch three-quarter length, standing, with a long white beard, holding in his right hand a book, and in his left a rod or staff of office ; on his head is a curiously shaped helmet against an aureole, and his waist is encircled by a chain, indicative, it is said, of penance, for the part which history says he had in the murder of Thomas k Becket. It had been preserved from time immemorial in the old monas- tery of the Trinity Friars, of which he was the founder, and was thence removed to the present hall, which was built in 1731. Kennedy in his * Annals of Aberdeen ' mentions a record of the 4th January 1715, by which an agreement was made with Charles White, a common house-painter, " for renewing the orig- inal painting, which had been in the monastery for many ages, as cheap as possible, not exceeding fifty shillings sterling." The picture measures four feet high by two feet nine inches broad, and bears the following inscription, which was probably included in the fifty shillings* worth of new painting by White : " St William, King of Scots, surnamed the Lyon, the first founder of the Trinitie Friars at Aberdeen, where he had his chappell. He reigned 49 years, beginning T165, dyed at Striveling 12 14, and was buried at Aberbrothwick." Regarding Scottish architecture, which began to assume a posi- tion in the twelfth century, the subject is so wide, and has been so extensively treated in the works of Billings and others, that any 20 ART IN SCOTLAND. reference here is almost unnecessary. It was in this century that early Norman architecture took root in Scotland. In the previous one, Malcolm Canmore's Saxon queen, Margaret, largely influenced taste. Among the erections of the period may be mentioned Holyrood, commenced in 1128, and the Abbey of Kelso, founded in the same year. The original Norman structure on Inchcolm was erected about 1123; Melrose Abbey was founded thirteen years later (burned in 1322) ; and St Magnus's Cathedral origin- ated in 1 138. The Norman style of architecture in Scotland gave place, in the second half of the same century, to the early pointed, which lasted till about 1 242. Examples of this exist in the splendid crypt of Glasgow Cathedral, the nave of Dunblane Cathedral, Kil- winning Abbey, and the chancel of St Blane's in Bute. The Abbey of Aberbroth wick, founded by William the Lion in 1178, illustrates the meeting of the two periods. Of the very early architects and sculptors, as yet little or nothing is known of any interest : their identity has become merged in their works. We can only theorise and speculate in respect to our ecclesiastical edifices ; and regarding the designers of the baronial mansions and castles of Scotland, whatever infor- mation there is to be gathered has yet to be gleaned from obscure records or unedited documents. ^ There is little doubt that early Scottish architecture and sculpture was an importation from France. The poHtical relations so long existing between the two countries, and the more advanced culture of the French, readily account for this. Thus the evidences of the Ancient League are almost as plainly written on the walls of such castles as those of Glammis and Fyvie as if the veritable documents lay before us ; while on the sculptured tombs of such Scottish knights as those in the Kirk of St Bride of Douglas we see the records of their prowess, and of their renown gained under the oriflamme of France. Many of the baronial mansions of Scotland have their ^ The inscription to John Murdo in Melrose Abbey is of a later date than that of the building. He was probably charged with the upkeep of the edifices thereon named. EARLY ARCHITECTURE. 21 prototypes in that of Combourg in northern Brittany, and others in Normandy and Picardy ; but the Scottish form of that branch of art has a character of its own, from the presence of which it must be admitted that, although educated under foreign in- fluence, the designers were either natives of the country, or French artists so long settled in Scotland that they might almost be called natives. The antagonistic relations so long existing between the northern and southern parts of the island preclude any idea of this branch of early Scottish art having been influenced by that of England, except to a slight extent by the immigration of Norman adventurers from England. The ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland changed and modified its various styles at later periods than in England ; and a comparison between the graceful and beautiful English minsters and abbeys, such as York, Salisbury, and Rivaulx, and the cathedrals of Kelso, Jedburgh, Elgin, and Glasgow, shows at once a different character consistent with that of the people, although the line of demarcation is less severe regarding such buildings as the more picturesque abbey of Mel- rose and the chapel of Roslin. The mansions of the Scottish nobility, till a comparatively late period, were mostly feudal strongholds. The very few walled towns which then existed, and the construction of Border peels and other fastnesses, tell of the habits of a people inured to war, who cared little for the safety of their ordinary dwellings, so long as their cattle and movable goods could be bestowed in a temporary shelter from the rapacity of predatory raiders, or the risk from reprisals of contending factions. The history of the country tells how the southern invader often met with scant forage and little plunder when unable to reduce such places of strength, forming so many fastnesses from whence the natives issued to harass the foe by practising the tactics which the great Bruce recognised as the most effective against their " auld enemies of England." As evidence of the influence of French example in the art of the early Scottish sculptor, there are the very numerous engraved sepulchral slabs, such as those at Holyrood and Seton, and in ^2 ART IN SCOTLAND. Argyle and Aberdeenshire, corresponding to same kind and period in France. The storm of the Reformation, which swept away nearly every specimen of sculpture, completely killed that art, as well as architecture, for a time, which was still further prolonged by the Covenanting troubles and the Rebellion ; and thus a new race of artists, in harmony with the changed con- dition of the country, have only been developed a little further back than the present century. It is highly probable that David I., in the foundation of bishoprics, and the building and endowment of numerous monas- teries at the expense of grants of lands out of his patrimony, may have been the means of producing many pieces of sculpture ; but in the splendid edifices which he originated, in the form of sculp- tured figures, hardly any vestiges remain, and these are of the least important kind. There is absolutely nothing of this class at Kelso or Jedburgh ; a few insignificant fragments remain at Dry- burgh ; at Melrose a few decorated mouldings, small figures, and a Madonna and Child — much broken, but of great elegance— no doubt owe their preservation to the almost inaccessible positions which they occupy : but even these have to be assigned to a very much later date. There is a very close resemblance between the Madonna and similar French work, especially on the cathedral of Rheims, suggestive of the idea that it is of French workmanship. Time and the hands of the destroyer have been very severe on the old carved fonts, few of which now exist : one of these, enriched by coiled dragons of a Celtic character, is at Dryburgh ; and another, with figures, is preserved in the small fourteenth-century church at Fowlis Easter. With regard to the now lost specimens of early sculpture in Scotland of about this period, the memory is preserved of the tomb of Mary de Couci, the second wife of Alexander 11. She was descended from the long and illustrious race of the De Coucis of France ; her father was famed as a poet as well as a knight ; and her period, if not her name, is associated with the well-known chess-pieces preserved in the Edinburgh Museum. TOMB OF THE BRUCE. 23 She was buried in Newbattle Abbey, and Father Hay mentions that " in the midst of the church was seen her tomb of marble, supported by six lions of marble, and a human figure reclining on the tomb, surrounded by an iron railing." Barbour in his History of the Bruce tells how, when the great monarch died, he was " solemply erdyt in a fayr tumb, in till the quer " of Dun- fermline Abbey. The carefully kept Exchequer Rolls of the period record the fact that the tomb was executed in Paris by a Richard Barber, from whence it was sent via Bruges, at the cost of £,\Z'> 6s. 8d. (modern money), a further disbursement being made in the same year, 1329, to " Johanni de Lithcu [Linlith- gow], pro expensis faciendis circa sepulturam regis." The king died in June, and the tomb being erected in the August following, the short interval leads to the inference that he had it in prepara- tion during his lifetime, in anticipation of the near approach of death. Some fragments, believed to have pertained to this tomb, were unearthed on the discovery of the body of the king in 1817- 181 8, and are described as being of marble, elegantly chiselled into different small compartments resembling Gothic arches, the orna- mental being gilded.^ Judging from the records and history of the fourteenth century, there seems to have been no lack of skilled artificers and artists of different kinds. Although it would be unreasonable to expect that painting, as an art, had any existence to speak of, it may be curious to recall the fact that Barbour mentions the capture of Edinburgh Castle in 13 12 having been foreseen in a vision by " Sanct Margaret, the gud haly queyne," who caused a representa- tion of the escalade to be portrayed on the walls of her chapel. The subject of the portraying, or " taknyng rycht joly," is care- fully described by the Archdeacon, who speaks of it as being ** yeit in till hyr chapele." ^ It is known that David II.'s tilting armour was made in Scotland, and there is frequent mention of that craft in the 1 Notes to The Bruce, ed. 1869. 2 Barbour's Bruce, Buke Sewynd ; also. Preface to Exchequer Rolls, vol. ii. 24 ART IN SCOTLAND. ^ period. The tombstone for Robert II., which was prepared during that monarch's lifetime, was sculptured by Nicholas Haen, the king's mason, and brought from England by sea. It wasd decorated at Holyrood by Andrew the Painter (who succeeded Adam Tore as "Gustos Monete" in the Mint at Edinburgh), after which it was removed via Leith to Perth, and finally to Scone, for<|pi the interment of the king.^ The same Andrew Painter was also paid for his labours in connection with the tomb of Robert II.'s father and mother. Thomas of Strathearn is mentioned as "Gustos Monete" at the Perth Mint, and John the Painter, of Aberdeen, was employed in painting armorial banners for David II. Gopin the Goldsmith, who made David's sceptre for the coronation, may perhaps have been a foreigner, and possibly also Nicholas, who did similar work for the king under Adam Tore ; but, in conjunction with the latter, John the Goldsmith, a bailie of Edinburgh, was employed in the operations at the Mint, where he was allowed five nobles of gold for the purpose of gilding the royal plate. A friar painter, "Fratri Thome Lorimer," appears in the royal accounts in 1382, during the reign of Robert II., when there was a lull in the wars with England, as receiving a payment of xxiij li. x s. for divers purchases in Flanders — a further sum being paid to the same in the same year of vj li. xiiij d.^ Seal-engraving on metal, as already mentioned, held even at this early time a very respectable position from an artistic point of view, as evidenced by the Great and Privy Seals of Alexander II. and his successors. Taking into consideration the time at which they were executed, they are of singular merit. It is not the least likely that they would be cut in England, and as they show decided differences in style and treatment from contemporary French seals, may reasonably be attributed to native skill. There must also have been many artists of the kind ^ Exchequer Rolls, Preface to vol. ii. 2 ** Cuidam pictori fratri pro diversis emptis in Flandria ad opus et de Mandato regis." — Acct. of the Custumars of Edinburgh ; Exchequer Rolls. DAVID II. 25 referred to whose names and works are unknown, who would find employment in the internal decorations of carvings of armorial bearings, and other enrichments, in the dwellings of some of the Scottish nobles, of which the great hall of Randolph, Earl of Murray, at Tarnaway is an example, measuring some ninety feet long by thirty in height/ The superiority of the coinage of David II. over that of his predecessors, was probably due to the observations which he made during his captivity in England, as on his return to Scotland we find him introducing Italians into the services of the Mint. Popular tradition in England formerly not only credited him with taking an interest in art, but also with having himself handled the sculptor's chisel. Speed in his 'Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain' describes a vault under the castle of Nottingham as being remarkable in his day (161 1) for "the story of Christ His passion, engraven on the walls and cut by the hand of David II., King of Scots, whilst he was therein detained prisoner." About the year 1387 a curious and somewhat romantic episode is related in the ' Scotichronicon ' in connection with the great and powerful historic house of Douglas — of which William, the natural son of Archibald, had greatly distinguished himself by his successes on land and sea against the English — showing that the art of portrait-painting was not quite unknown in Scotland. It is related that the King of Scotland, in recognition of these services, had agreed to give William de Douglas the hand of the Lady ^gidia his daughter, " the fairest of maidens ; and with her and to the heirs to be borne between them, he gave the lordship of Nyddesdale, to be possessed for ever. Of so elegant a form and so exceeding courteous was this lady, and so esteemed and praised in remote realms, that the most Christian King of France having heard of her fame, sent secretly a subtle painter to portray the effigy of her virgin countenance, proposing to take her to wife." The painter, however, was too late, and before he had the ^ Border Antiquities. 26 ART IN SCOTLAND. opportunity of thus portraying her virgin countenance, the fair lady had become the bride of the vaHant Douglas. As an evidence that the art of painting in Scotland was so prevalent in the very early fifteenth century as not to be confined to the requirements of the great peers of the realm, but even made use of by knights and barons of lower degree on their funereal monuments in the form of painted " brods," Pinkerton in 1799 refers to a picture in the parish church of Houston in Renfrewshire, which is described in the old Statistical Account as consisting of " a large frame of timber, on which are two pictures, seemingly done in oils, but much worn out. On the right side, a man in complete armour, resembling that of a Knight Templar, with an inscription in Saxon characters over his head, some words of which are effaced — ' Hie jacet Dominus Johannes Houston de eodem, miles, qui obiit Anno Dom. MoCCCC^*.' On the left hand a picture of his lady, also much effaced, and over her head the inscription, ' Hie jacet Domina Maria Colquhoun, sponsa quon- dam dicti Joannis, quae obiit Septimus die Mensis Octobris, An. Dom. MoCCCC^ quinto.' " Of this curious old painting, which from its nature and date would probably be painted in tempera, perhaps glazed with oil, no vestige now remains. The presump- tion is that it was painted to the order of Sir Patrick, who died in 1450, and whose recumbent effigy in complete armour, with that of his wife in the full lady's costume of the period, beautifully carved in freestone, is still preserved in the quite recently erected church on the old site. An instance of the similar application of art occurs in connection with the Blackfriars' Church at Stirling, in which the burial-place of the Duke of Albany and of his two sons was indicated by like paintings.^ Specimens of monumental sculpture of the early fifteenth century, as well as of the immediately preceding periods, are very numerous in Scotland, and are often of great beauty. In the old kirk of St Bride of Douglas, among other interesting effigies is that of Marjory Abernethy, the wife of Hugh Douglas, ^ Icon. Scotica. SCULPTURED TOMBS. 2/ who died in 1259. The others consist of the good Sir James, killed by the Moors in 1330; a canopied tomb of Archibald, fifth Earl, second Duke of Touraine and Marshal of France (died 1438), with five remaining of six small upright canopied figures on the base, extremely quaint and elaborate ; and a less elaborate but more beautifully executed monument, with the broken effigies of James the Gross (died 1443) and his wife Lady Beatrix Sinclair. The latter is surmounted by a full heraldic achievement. The base contains six small male figures — one habited as an ecclesi- astic — and four female figures, the head-dress of the last of which is supposed to indicate her unmarried state, the series being separated by impaled and quartered arms bearing the usual Douglas and family cognisances. Of these, some have been sadly mutilated — it is said, by the Cromwellian dragoons — but traces of their former painting and gilding are yet evident, although the canopies have been much restored. On the last- mentioned work, the carvings over the mouldings are remarkably elegant, and bear a very close resemblance to similar detail on parts of Melrose Abbey, possibly executed by the same carvers. Among other sculptured tombs of about the same periods may be mentioned the mysterious one attributed to the memory of Queen *' Blearie,"i the mother of Robert II., in Paisley Abbey; that of the Forresters in Corstorphine Church ; and another lying in the chapel of St Mary in Bute, exposed to all the wasteful rigour of the climate. Mr Henry Laing has described as a most beautiful work of art the sculptured tomb — probably of Walter Paniter, abbot from 141 1 till 1443 — the remains of which were found in the chancel of Aberbrothoc Abbey, with faded traces of former gilding and colour.^ Perhaps, however, the most splendid work of this kind erected in Scotland is the fine canopied tomb of Bishop Kennedy in the College Church at St Andrews, from which, unfortunately, the recumbent figure is gone. Speaking of ^ Marjory Bruce, sumamed Blearie from the circumstance that her son had a disorder in one of his eyes. ^ Scottish Antiquaries' Proceedings. 28 ART IN SCOTLAND. this, Mr Billings says : " In very few such works have archi- tectural forms and devices been so profusely and gorgeously heaped together as in the rich monument of black marble erected to the memory of Bishop Kennedy. Towers, pinnacles, crockets, canopies, arches, pillars, mimic doors and windows — all have been thrown together in rich yet symmetrical profusion at the will of some beautiful and fantastic fancy, as if a fairy palace had been suddenly erected out of the elements of feudal castles, of minsters, abbeys, cloisters, and vaults." He died in 1446, and is thus referred to by Pitscottie : " He foundit ane triumphand coUedge in Sanct Androis, called Sanct Salvitouris CoUedge, quharin he made his lear verrie curiouslie and coastlie, and also he biggit ane schip, called the Bischopis barge ; and when all thrie were com- pleit — to witt, the colledge, the lair, and the barge — he knew not quhilk of thrie was costliest, for it was rekoned for the tyme be honest men of consideratioun that the least of thrie cost him ten thousand pund sterling." ^ In order to bring the tomb up to this value, a tradition exists, for which there seems no foundation, that the niches were originally filled with statuettes of silver.^ Although we understand that James I., in addition to " taste for poetry and music, showed some skill in miniature-paint- ing and book-illuminating, we have no known specimens of the work of the royal amateur. In his time, although heraldry was much in vogue and book-illuminating widely practised, we have only a few examples of the latter to show as representing this branch of the art of the period. Regarding illuminated armorials of the Scottish nobility, the oldest is that in the Bibliotheque Royale at Brussels, by Gelre, Herault d'Armes, of the four- teenth century, followed in point of date by that of Gilles de Bouvier, created Berry King of Arms by Charles II. in the early fifteenth century, and which contains one hundred and twenty-two coats from Scotland, against sixty-two from Germany, and sixty- four from Italy. A collection in the Advocates' Library bears 1 Billings's Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities. - Fletcher's Guide to St Andrews, 1845. LINLITHGOW SCULPTURES. 29 the date 1630-1654, copied by Sir James Balfour, Lyon King, from an earlier work by Sir Robert Forman, who was sent on an embassy to France to "our Sovrane lady Marie" about 1562. These of course have no pretensions to works of art, being mere registers ; but the old family of the Kers of Yair possess a MS., evidently of native workmanship and of a later date, showing a rude but spirited execution, and containing several curious bear- ings of Highland chiefs fully displayed. By far our most import- ant herald was the distinguished Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, whose MS. of 1542 shows very considerable power in drawing, the designs being free and bold, and often very great taste ex- hibited in the cartouches beneath bearing the inscriptions, which are again excelled by those in the small folio of the younger Sir David, executed between March 1603 and March 1605.^ To the taste of the energetic but unfortunate king who was so brutally murdered at Perth, we owe most of the fine old palace of Linlithgow, on the building and decoration of which he spent very considerable sums. Much decayed, weather-worn, and mostly in fragments, the old fountain in the centre of the quad- rangle still forms an appropriate ornament to the royal dwelling. Almost as much decayed are the sculptures on the outside of the wall over the main entrance, and those on the wall of the east side of the court, where, under a fretted canopy, the centre is occupied by the head, shoulders, and arms of a St Michael, whose outspread wings dominate a crumbled and empty niche, formerly containing, it is said, the statue of a pope. On each side of this is the upper part of another angel with spread wings flying upwards with a scroll, still showing traces of great spirit and execution, and the motive of which is most apparent in the early part of a sunny day, when the light falling from the south-east almost converts them into semblances of flying doves. Under these the niches are said to have contained figures of a knight and an agriculturist, thus representing the three estates dominated by angelic powers. Of the group over the south entrance, formerly supposed to repre- ^ Possessed by the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres. ART IN SCOTLAND. sent a salutation, all that now remains is a female figure with upturned face, hands folded on her breast, and long flowing hair : on this figure also the rude Scottish climate has failed to obliterate traces of its original grace. Whether these may be considered the work of native or imported artists is not known. With refer- ence to the internal decorations, the fact is recorded that in 1434 xxxvij li. xvj s. was paid to " Matheo [Mathew] pictori regis " for painting materials, and in the following year v li. x s. for a similar purpose, to "Magister Johanni pinctore regis." As the palace approached a habitable condition, further expenditure is recorded, including orders for tapestries with the royal arms, executed at Bruges in 1436.1 Connected with ecclesiastical art, one of the most beautiful re- maining specimens is a winged St Michael on one of the angles of the Linlithgow church of that name. Much decayed and mutilated as that is, the pose of the figure trampling on the dragon is still perfectly preserved, the action of the right hand grasping the Misericorde and of the left arm (the hand of which has been holding the staff of a spear) being yet evident. The un- helmeted head is of a feminine character, with long flowing hair ; the tight-fitting body seems to have been covered by chain-mail, with tassets or skirts ; and on the lower limbs, the central ridge or angle, still discernible in a sharp side-light, with some markings under the left knee, show rather the character of plate-armour than the softer rounding which would yet have remained if a mail covering had been represented. Equally beautiful and probably of the same period is a fragment of a cross in the old churchyard of Kilmartin, bearing on one side in high relief a carved figure of the crucified Saviour, which will compare favourably with any Continental sculpture of the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries. The outstretched arms are gone, but the drooping head with its crown of thorns, supine limbs, graceful form, and soft modelling, still show evidences of its having been a beautiful work of art. The other side bears the lower part only of a flat treatment of God the ^ Exchequer Rolls. JAMES III. 31 Father in a Byzantine style. The cross, it is said, formerly stood on the roadside in the neighbourhood, from whence it was re- moved, laid in the graveyard, covered with turf, and afterwards erected where it now stands on one side of the path within the gateway, opposite to another of a similar size and form, covered with the usual geometric pattern. The legs are crossed — a treat- ment which did not obtain till after the early part of the fourteenth century. The character of the second James was not such as to lead us to expect from him any recognition of art, and, personally, there seems little to be recorded during his reign ; probably his conten- tions with the powerful house of Douglas left him little leisure or thought for anything else. There is mention of the usual half- workman, half-artist of the period in the Custumar's accounts, where the name of John Tavernere occurs twice, specially as painting a banner and making a gittern. Alan, a painter, is mentioned as receiving payment by the king's order for painting a sim.ilar instrument ; and an " Allan Pantour," who was possibly the same, " the most ingenious man in Scotland, and most subtle in divers things," is chronicled as having been slain by an arrow ^'throu misgovernyng of himself" at the siege of Douglas's castle of Abercorn on St George's Day 1454, and was ''much missed by the king and his nobles." ^ The third monarch of the name, who seems to have had more enthusiasm and love for the fine arts than power for governing, did something towards encouraging a taste for art, as shown by some works already mentioned, although his nobles did not permit their appreciation of architecture from hanging Cochran over the parapet of Lauder Bridge. To this king we owe the erection of the great hall of Stirling Castle, as well as the Chapel Royal of Stirling, or, as it was then called, the Collegiate Church of the Blessed Mary and St Michael. This chapel must, how- ever, have presented a great contrast to the important cathedrals then existing, as, although the historian Robert Johnston, who ^ Exchequer Rolls. ART IN SCOTLAND. lived from 1572 till 1628, describes the ceiling of the new Chapel Royal as having been decorated with gilding, and the walls adorned with pictures and sculpture for the baptism of the Prince of Wales in 1594, Sir Robert Drummond, in his report for its restoration in 1584, says, "The thaik thairof resaweis weit and rane in sic sort that the kingis hienes may nocht weill remane within the same in tyme of weitt or rane;" and also, that "the ruif thairof hes bene wrang wrocht, meikle under sqware, that the thak of the same is of skailze, and is ane werray licht thak." ^ It is, however, mainly to the contents of this chapel that it has a connection with our subject, as several works of the painter's art are enumerated in the inventory made in the year 1505. Among the vestments, &c., are mentioned, — "Item, a tablet [tabula] with three leaves on which are painted an image of our Lady bearing her son in her arms, and two angels with musical instruments. Item, one [tabula or tablet] having three leaves on which are painted under glass an image of the crucifix and four of the saints under glass on the sides. Item, four great Antiphonarici [music-books] on parchment, written with a pen, and having divers capital letters gilt."^ The tablets were no doubt altar-paintings, constructed so that the two side leaves folded and closed over the central picture, and the music-books were probably the work of Sir Thomas Galbraith,^ a priest of the Lennox family, who under James IV. was connected with the chapel as a musician, as in 1491 he was paid, along with " Jok Goldsmyth and Craford," three unicorns, "for singyn a ballad to the king in the morning." While on the subject of painting in connection with church services, there may be mentioned, in further illustration of the number of paintings formerly existing, and many of which would ^ Rogers's Chapel Royal of Stirling. Note. —The use of the word *' thak '* does not necessarily imply a thatch of straw, as the word applies to any roof-covering. ^ Rogers's Chapel Royal. ^ A pope's knight, as he would be called, and not taking rank in the re- cognised degree of knighthood. TRINITY CHURCH. 33 no doubt have been the work of native artists, a silken painted banner existing in the cathedral of Aberdeen in 15 14, and the following extract from the inventory in the college library there, and dated 1542 : "A small tablet having an effigy of the Holy Virgin Mary, surrounded with interlaced work ; another, on which is painted the Virgin in glory ; another, on which is painted John Elphinston, knight, before an image of the crucifix, given by the rector of Clatt ; another, having the effigy of our Lady of Loretto ; another, having an effigy of the crucifixion, given by John Vaus, formerly a teacher in this college." ^ The curious and in- teresting old portrait of Bishop Elphinston, so carefully preserved in King's College, is possibly the work of a Flemish artist. Of more probable interest as works of art of the fifteenth century were the wall decorations beside the high altar in the cathedral of Dunkeld, executed for Bishop Thomas Lauder be- tween 1452 and 1476, consisting of the twenty-four miracles of St Columba, over which were two figures of the saint, in honour of whom a monastery of Culdees had been founded there in the eighth or ninth century. Among other wealthy ecclesiastics of taste of the same period may be mentioned Thomas Tarvas, Abbot of Paisley, who died in 1459. Finding his kirk "all out of gude rewle," and otherwise in disorder, "the body of the kirk fra the bucht stair up he biggit, . . . and brocht hame mony gude jewellers, and claiths of gold, silver, and silk, and mony gude buikis, and maid staitlie stalls, and glassynit mekle of all the kirk, and brocht hame the staitliest tabernacle that was in all Scotland, and the maist costlie." Perhaps, however, the most interesting relic associated with James IIL was the Trinity Church of Edinburgh — a fragment of a Gothic edifice of beautiful style, now demolished. It is usually mentioned as having been built by James to the mem- ory of his mother, Mary of Gueldres; but the Burgh Records of Edinburgh prove that it was at least begun in 1460 (the year in which James II. was killed), by Mary of Gueldres her- ^ Kennedy's Annals of Aberdeen. C 34 ART IN SCOTLAND. self.i There is thus every reason, if dates so far ascertainable can be relied upon, to suppose that it was erected as a monument to one of Scotland's ablest kings cut off in his prime, by an affection- ate and sorrowing widow. The building was taken down in 1848 to make room for the accommodation of a railway coal-depot, and beside it was Trinity Hospital, " a retreat for a few aged and decayed male and female burgesses ; it was nothing outside, but the door was no sooner opened than a different world appeared. Everything about it was odd and ancient. ... It contained nothing, except perhaps a few old books and portraits, of any in- trinsic value, but, placed as it was, everything was appropriate and strange. It was knocked to pieces to accommodate a very respectable company of carriers."^ The " carriers" thus referred to were the North British Railway Company, between whom and the magistrates an arrangement was agreed upon for the transfer of the site, in accordance with which the Company were to take down and rebuild the church elsewhere. As an alternative, the Magistrates and Council were to accept a sum in compensation, and take the re-erection in their own hands. The Company sub- mitted plans estimated at ;£i6,37i, which were rejected by the Council, chiefly on the ground of not being purely a restoration, and this sum was then offered and accepted in accordance with the alternative. The building was taken down and the stones allowed to lie in the neighbourhood of Calton Hill, where they might have continued still, but for the repeated pleadings and indignant protests of public-spirited gentlemen and the Society of Antiquaries. After an interval of twenty-four years, the Council at last moved, and the Trinity Church was re-erected in 1872 on its present site. The complete re-dressing, however, which the stones had to undergo, has removed every characteristic of antiquity, and the visitor can now only recognise a very respect- able modern church. This church is connected with the painter's art by having had ^ Extracts from Burgh Records of Edinburgh, a.d. 1403- 1528. 2 Lord Cockburn's Memorials. HOLYROOD ALTAR-PAINTING. 35 in its possession originally the very remarkable altar - painting which is now preserved in Holyrood Palace. The picture, or rather series of pictures, consists of two panels of fir, which measure thirty-seven by seventy-seven inches, upright, and prob- ably formed the folding-doors of an altar-piece, painted on both sides. The first represents the king, James III., kneeUng under a red-coloured cloth of estate, within a church, behind whom is his son, afterwards James IV., represented about ten or twelve years of age — this fixes the date of the picture as about 1480, the prince having been born in March 1471-72 ; also behind the monarch is St Andrew, against his saltire cross, plac- ing with his right hand a jewelled crown on the king's head. On the reverse of this panel is a representation of the Holy Trinity, God the Father being represented with long auburn hair, wearing a red robe, and seated on a throne of gold, on the dais of which lies a crystal orb : a white dove, emblematic of the Holy Ghost, hovers over the head of the dead Christ, who is supported by the hands of the Father. Slight differences in the execution of this are suggestive of the work of another artist. On the second panel the principal figure is that of James's queen, Margaret of Denmark, kneeling under a green traverse, identified by her blazon of the Danish arms. She wears a red close-fitting cloth bodice over a blue robe, with a blue ermine- lined mantle, and a pall of cloth-of-gold over her shoulders ; on her head is a pearled crepine and jewelled crown, and a gold band over the left ear is inscribed PNACN, the meaning of which is yet unknown. The queen is attended by a figure in plate-armour, surmised as being her father in the character of St Canute ; over the armour is a peculiar pendant of leather re- sembling oak-leaves, and he holds in his left hand a lance with an unfurled pennon, party per pale argent and azure, inscribed JHESV. MARIA in golden letters. On the reverse of this panel is a kneeling ecclesiastic, wearing the tonsure, a linen surplice, fur pelisse, and an almuce of grey squirrel's fur hanging over his left arm : this figure is identified by his arms — azure, a 36 ART IN SCOTLAND. chevron argent between three buckles or — as Sir Edward Boncle, of the family of the Bonkils of the Merse, who was Provost of the Trinity College, and an accomplished musician. Beside him is a St Cecilia seated at an organ, with before her, over the key- board, a book opened at the first verse of the hymn, " O Lux Beata Trinitas," with the chant-notes ; a winged angel, in amice and alb, stands behind working the bellows and evidently listening. The latter is perhaps the finest of the four pictures in point of execution. The St Cecilia the late Dr David Laing claims as a portrait of the widowed queen, who founded the church ; while Pinkerton, who first drew attention to the picture, and traced its heraldry, suggests the probability of the saint and angel being portraits of the king's sisters, Mary Lady Hamilton, and Mar- garet, who was then unmarried. It may be curious to note that the prince, afterwards James IV., was immediately after his birth betrothed to the Princess Cecilia of England, who was his senior by four years, and the engagement not broken off till 148 1 or 1482. If the head of the Cecilia has not been very considerably altered, however, she is represented at too advanced an age to permit us to suppose that this was intended for the princess. Regarding the authorship of this very remarkable and singu- larly beautiful work — probably the noblest of the kind in the now united kingdom, of that period — it has as yet been impossible to determine. The whole character of the work points unerringly to a Flemish artist of the Van Eyck school. Among the State Paper Office documents is one entitled '*A note of all such pictures as your Highness [James I.] hath at this present, done by severall famous masters' owne hands, by the Life " (which is sup- posed to have been written about 1623 or 1624). No. i is, "Im- primis — King James III. of Scotland with his queen, doune by Joan Vanak." ^ It was for some time attributed to Mabuse, and when at Hampton Court was accepted as such, and criticised ^ Proceedings of Society of Scottish Antiquaries, by Dr David Laing, John van Eyck died 1440-41, and Hubert in 1426. HOLYROOD ALTAR-PAINTING. .37 accordingly by Dr Waagen : 1 but that artist was not born till about 1470, and does not seem to have been in England till about 1499. In the Manchester Exhibition, where it was shown in 1857, it bore the name of Hugo van der Goes, who was much employed by the Burgundian Court at Bruges and Ghent, and who painted a picture in connection with the marriage of Margaret of York and Charles the Rash. A comparison with the works of this artist is, however, rather difficult : his pictures formerly in Belgium have been either lost or destroyed; those bearing his name in the catalogues of Berlin, Munich, and Vienna are said to be doubtful ; and his best and most authentic work is an altarr piece in the Hospital of Sta. Maria Nuova at Florence. In addition to this, he is stated as having died in the year 1482 (nearly the presumed date of the pictures), in the convent of the Rooden Clooster near Brussels, where for some time he was an inmate and associated with the monks in a state of melancholy. The late Dr David Laing has brought all his acuteness of research to bring it within the period of that artist's life, but not quite successfully, by antedating the picture. His reasons for this are, the apparent youth of some of the chief persons represented, and that no special cause can be discovered for having such a com- position painted in 1482 or 1484, at such a late epoch in the king's reign. The explanation which he suggests is, that the painting was intended to commemorate the marriage and coro- nation of the youthful queen in 1469. Allowing a year for the completion of the picture, such a date, he assumes, would be so much nearer the period of the foundation of the church when actual progress had been made in the building.^ In presence of the panels it is rather difficult to admit that the figures repre- sented are of the ages which this date would necessitate. Who 1 Waagen's Art Treasures in Great Britain, 1854. 2 The church must have been surely finished long before this. In the Burgh Records appears, "Promulgation by Andrew, Bishop of Glasgow, of Bull of Pope Pius II., dated 23d October 1460, and authorising annexation of Hospital of Soltray to Collegiate Church and Hospital of Holy Trinity," and made at Linlithgow 1461-62. 38 ART IN SCOTLAND. painted them may be yet ascertained, and it must always remain a proof of a high degree of taste and culture that an artist capable of executing such a work should have been selected and employed. Regarding the history of these panels, it is probable that they were removed to the Chapel Royal of Holyrood after the Trinity Church was conveyed by gift from the Crown to the Magistrates in 1567. When the various articles of furniture, books, pictures, &c., were removed from Holyrood Palace to England on James's accession to the English throne in 1603, it is not known that the panels were included, but the document already referred to shows that they must have been removed prior to 1623, or at an earHer period, among the plunder carried off by the English during the reign of Henry VHI. They are enumerated in the catalogue of pictures at Hampton Court in 1688, and were afterwards removed to Kensington, probably by William III., when he purchased and enlarged that palace in 1691, enriching it at the same time by a selection of pictures, &c., from St James's, Windsor, and Hampton Court, as they appear in the Kensington list of 1820 — numbers 157 and 166 in the Queen's Dining-room. In 1836 they were again removed to Hampton Court, and in 1857, as already said, were exhibited in Manchester, where the attention of Scottish antiquaries and artists was drawn to them, and by the active zeal of David Laing, F.S.A., and W. B. John- ston, R.S.A., a memorial was presented to her Majesty by several noblemen and gentlemen, praying for their transference to the Palace of Holyrood at the close of the Exhibition, which was accordingly done.^ They were at that time in a very bad state of preservation, one of the pictures being much bhstered on the surface, and in 1871 were successfully cleaned and restored under the care of a Mr Buttery in London. 1 David Laing. Pinkerton's Portraits, &c., &c. Of about the same date is mentioned, among the property of George, Earl Marischal, a coffer appro- priated by his widow, containing, among other valuables, a portrait of the Queen of Denmark "in gold set about with rich diamants, estimate to five thousand merks." PAINTING IN FOWLIS EASTER. 39 From the fact that the panels are painted on both sides, of equal sizes, and with corresponding subjects, there can be little doubt that they were meant for the folding leaves or doors of a triptych, and the question naturally arises. What did they enclose ? If the work ever stood in a complete form, there may have been a third picture, painted on one side only, and double the size of these panels — a form of altar-painting not uncommon at the period, and of which the Mystic Lamb of the Van Eycks at Ghent is a magnificent example. If the enclosure did not consist of a painting, it would probably be some precious piece of altar-furnishing or venerated relic, held in a recess of which these panels formed the doors. Near to the village of Liff, and some six or seven miles from Dundee, stands the little church of FowHs Easter, dedicated to St Merion in the twelfth century, but rebuilt in the fourteenth, containing a beautiful specimen of old wood-carving and an interesting stone font. The chancel is separated from the present place of service by an oaken screen, containing the most magni- ficent specimen of ecclesiastic art which Scotland possesses of the kind and period, incomplete as it is. The painting consists of three separate compartments — the principal being a representa- tion of the crucifixion, measuring fully thirteen feet in length by over five feet in height, and is full of incident. The figures in the foreground are over half life-size, and shown in half-length only. "The figure of our Lord in the centre shows the body stretched at full length (on the cross), in contradistinction to those of His two companions in suffering, who are suspended by the armpits, having the hands and feet bound together with ropes — the sinews above and below their elbows and knees being cut. The countenance of the Saviour expresses calm serenity amidst suffering -, that of the thief on the right, peace of mind and the pleasures of hope ; while the one on the left presents a for- bidding aspect, having depicted on his visage the contortions arising from pain and fear. . . . The Saviour's head is encircled by the crown of thorns, and surmounted by a glory ; the repentant 40 ART IN SCOTLAND. thief's with a neatly folded turban ; while his neighbour's on the left is bound with a fillet of cloth with a knot, the ends hanging down. The whole three are draped round the middle — the drapery of Christ being loosely folded, and that of His com- panions closely fitted to their bodies. At the foot of the cross stand the beloved John, the Blessed Virgin, the two Marys, and Martha. . . . The Virgin appears overwhelmed with grief; the head is shrouded in a loose-flowing robe, exhibiting the coun- tenance supported by the hand on the left side ; the under garment is fitted close to the body. Between the Virgin and the cross stands Mary Magdalene, clothed in a loose robe (the penitent's dress) closely fitting at the neck, with head draped. . . . On her left, and on the left of the cross, Mary of Bethany, with dishevelled hair and clasped hands, with eyes apparently fixed on the Saviour's feet. . . . On the right of the cross stands the beloved disciple, whose manly countenance betrays the emotions of a loving heart torn by the sight of the suffering of his Master. Behind the Virgin stands Martha, with grief strongly depicted ; yet she appears to be surveying as to how the Virgin bears the blow. Mary of Bethany, alone of the females, appears without a covering for the head, although a glory encircles it as well as that of the other four. On the left of the cross, between it and the unrepenting thief, is seated on horseback the centurion, grasping in his left hand the scroll of condemnation ; while from the first finger of the right hand rises a label containing the expression of his connection as to the Godhead of Christ — viz., ' Vero filius Dei erat iste.^ His robe is of purple, bordered with ermine. Behind appear two soldiers and a monk on horseback. On the left of the malefactor's cross are seen the high priest and two ecclesiastics. The high priest is clad with a robe bordered with ermine, having on his head the Eastern tiara, and holding a species of sceptre in the hand. Over his left shoulder is seen Satan with a countenance beaming with joy; the eye sparkles with pleasure, the mouth exhibits a row of teeth set in a peculiar fashion, and the head is enclosed with a covering resembUng a PAINTING IN FOWLIS EASTER. 4I Kilmarnock night-cap, having excrescences to cover the two horns that rise from the forehead. Overhead appears one of his angels in the form of a black dragon of hideous aspect, bearing away the soul of the unrepentant thief to destruction. The soul has the appearance of an infant's head and shoulders, terminating in a point resembling a cone. On the left of the high priest is a soldier clad in armour, and on his right an ecclesiastic bearing a scroll. On the right of the cross of Christ are two mounted soldiers, who are guiding the spear which is thrust by one of their companions. To the right of the malefactor's cross, a figure in armour with uncovered head appears as if appealing to the soldier to withdraw his spear. The soldier appears in a garment over his arm resembling that of Mary Magdalene, and is pointing to his eye with the disengaged hand. ... By tradition we are told that the soldier who pierced our Lord's side was called Longinus, and that he was nearly blind, which accounts for his two companions guiding the weapon. On piercing the Saviour's side, part of the blood which sprang from the wound fell into his eye. Straightway receiving his sight perfectly, he was so con- vinced by this display of the Saviour's grace and mercy, that he left the army and joined himself to the apostles (hence the penitent's garb), and being instructed in the faith, was an instrument in God's hands to the conversion of others, and at last died a martyr for Christ. Over the head of Longinus appears an angel of light bearing away the soul of the repentant thief." 1 The space immediately over this important picture is occupied by a series of portraits, nineteen inches in height and fourteen in number, the last being obliterated, as the fifteenth space is a blank. These represent apostles, saints, &c., with their appro- priate emblems, and in addition a supposed portrait of the painter, with closely shaven face, hat and feathers, and his easel in front of him, evidently, says the writer of the previous description, a native 1 Historical Sketches of the Church and Parish of Fowlis Easter. James Stewart : 1865. 42 ART IN SCOTLAND. of the south of Europe ; but these are too high and too ill-lighted to permit of close examination. The third and lowest compartment, which occupies the space between the entrance to the chancel and the north wall, has been very much injured, either through wilfulness or neglect, and much of the surface presents only the graining of the wood. On the spectator's left is a figure of St Catherine, about half life-size, succeeded by a figure of the Redeemer, of which the head alone remains, almost the size of life. To the right of the latter is a figure of John the Baptist, the space between this and the wall being occupied by a very beautiful Madonna and Child, nearly entire and in good preservation. The lower portion of this com- partment represents the taking down from the cross, but the heads have all disappeared, the action of the figures and the body of the Saviour alone being left to illustrate the subject. Other three panels present nothing but the bare wood, and the large panel to the left of the doorway contained a representation of the rising from the j tomb, removed many years ago to some unknown place. " There are good reasons for supposing that the whole walls were at one time adorned with similar paintings, the plaster bearing which was destroyed during the Reformation ; and the preserva- tion of these panels is due to the fact that after being only partially obliterated the present remaining portions were covered with a coating of whitewash, removed from the surface about the year 1845. The work is characterised by much very excellent and refined drawing, careful thought, and in some places almost a Giorgione tone of colour. The style of the work throughout indicates the art as Flemish of the very best period, between 1420 and 1480, and of that branch of it which was influenced by the Cologne master, Stephen Lothener, although not without some indications of Italian refinement in the roundness of the forms, and occasionally great elegance of feature and expression. It is painted in the early Flemish manner, tempera wrought over with oil or varnish, and is a high testimony to the state of culture in Scotland at the period. To attribute it to the hand of any par- PAINTING IN FOWLIS EASTER. 43 ticular artist or artists would be at the best a mere guess. The character of the work suggests a painter of the school of Bruges, which city had about that time attained its highest point of prosperity under the government of the Dukes of Burgundy. Among the principal comptoirs etrangers at Bruges, that of Scotland was established in 1386 ;i and suchlike exportations of Flemish art were common in the fifteenth century. The im- portant triptych attributed to Memling in the cathedral of Dantzig is a notable and curious instance. Having been com- missioned from Italy, it was shipped at Sluys on board a British- built ship chartered by the Portinari and other Florentines of Bruges, and which was bound in the first place for the port of London. The relations at that time between England and Flanders being severely strained, Paul Benecke, the pirate, thought it a fair object of reprisal, and accordingly kept his caravel in its wake till an opportunity for its capture occurred off the English coast. The works of Petrus Christus at an earlier date were exported from Bruges even into Spain, the fragments of a triptych by that artist being still preserved at Berlin, taken from a convent at Burgos. About 1470, Justus of Ghent executed an altar-piece for the birthplace of the great Raphael, the cost of which was defrayed by subscriptions from the Duke of Urbino and others.^ Many other instances might be produced of commissions being sent to Bruges and Ghent by foreign corporations and wealthy individuals for the decoration of cathedrals or private chapels. While this very important work of art was probably an importa- tion of this kind, there is mention made of a local artist practising in the not very far-off city of Aberdeen in 1493, in which year Alexander Reid, the provost, had his portrait painted by an un- known artist, and which hung in the Kirk - Session House of Aberdeen till the year 1640.^ 1 Delepierre's Annales de Bruges. Bruges, 1835. 2 Crowe and Cavalcaselle's Early Flemish Painters. 3 Mr Bullock's Life of George Jamesone. This portrait may possibly have been by the Andrew Bairhum who is referred to further on. 44 CHAPTER III. Supposed Scottish portrait of Joan of Arc — James IV. and tomb of his father — Mynour the painter — Ledger of Attdrew Halylmrton — Expedition of James V. to France — Sixteenth-century 7vood-carving — Native painters in time of Ja7nes V. — Portraits — Paintings in interiors — Banner found at Pinkie field — Bishop Reid and Andrew Bairhiun. JHl Having referred to paintings by foreign artists of Scottish and other subjects, let us glance at a page of history illustrating the B Scottish artist painting abroad. The accounts of the Dukes of Burgundy take notice of two Scotchmen who were employed by that house as painters and carvers of images about the middle of the fifteenth century, and M. Michel, in his ' Ecossais en France,' relates the following episode : After the siege of Orleans, when the heroic and unfortunate Maid accompanied Charles VII. to Rheims, there were many Scotchmen at the ceremony — the brave Bishop Carmichael, "Messieurs Patrix d'Ohilby, Vicomte d' Angus," and others ; but notably Michael Norvill, a squire to whom the king gave as a gift the considerable sum of 150 ecus tournois. It is surmised that this Norvill was an envoy of King James of Scotland, and was then preparing to return to his native country. Nothing is more natural, continues Michel, than to suppose that he bore with him the portrait of the heroine who had torn the kingdom from the grasp of the English. Who was the painter of this portrait it is impossible to determine with certainty, but we are nevertheless permitted to conjecture. At the trial of the un- PORTRAIT OF JOAN OF ARC. 45 fortunate Maid, she was questioned as to whether she had ever seen or caused to have painted a portrait or image of herself, and replied that at Rheims she had seen in the hands of a Scotchman a picture resembling her in armour, kneeling on a cushion in the act of presenting a letter to the king. There appears in the royal accounts of France for the year 1420 the name of Hames Poule- voir, a painter who was then probably at Poitiers, and with more certainty at Tours between 1428 and 143 1. It was this Poulevoir who painted the white banner of Jeanne d'Arc — semee Withjleurs de lis, with a world and two angels, and the motto "Jhesus Marie." His daughter was a friend of La Pucelle, and she was married at the cost of the bourgeois of Tours. When it is con- sidered that the name of Polvvarth is a well-known Scotch one ; that the name Poulevoir is not native French, and not unlike Polwarth ; and also that Hames is the ancient Scoto-French form of James, — we may believe that a Scottish artist was the author of the portrait described by Joan in her examination — a not un- reasonable supposition to any one familiar with the transforma- tion of Scottish surnames in old French history. Another of these strangers, if not the same, followed La Pucelle in all her cam- paigns, and did not quit her till he had witnessed the barbarous tragedy at Rouen, and afterwards ended his life as a monk in the Abbey of Dunfermline. It is known that this monk was familiar with ^ or left some account of the life of the heroine, the existence of which is as yet undiscovered ; and it is supposed that the Dun- fermline monk, the painter of the white banner and the thus mentioned portrait, was the same individual.^ The late Dr Hill Burton, who refers to the incident in the ' Scot Abroad,' carries the surmise still further in calling attention to the fact that "Polwarth" was an old patronymic of the house of Home or Hume ; that Sir Alexander, the head of the house, was one of ^ Annals of Dunfermline. 2 The same Dunfermline monk is mentioned, after returning from France, in the Preface to the Marchmont and Bodleian MSS. of Fordun, as compiling twelve books of that history at the command of the Abbot of Dunfermline. Douglas's companions slain at the battle of Verneuil, and left three sons, thus suggesting the idea that one of these remained in France and was the painter of the portrait. The son of the unfortunate James III. inherited his father's love for art, besides being splendid and chivalrous to a fault. By lavishing his means on the decorations of the royal palaces and the Chapel Royal at Stirling, he set an example to the nobles of his own and the following reigns; and we find Dunbar in his * Remonstrance ' mentioning the employment of " cunyouris, car- vouris, and carpentaris," besides " pryntouris, payntouris, and potingaris"; but there is almost nothing left as an example of the art of his reign. From the accounts of his treasurer we learn that he employed foreign as well as native artists, among the latter again occurring the name of Thomas Galbraith. In Decem- ber 1497 there was paid ij li. ix s. to " David Prat ye payntour, in complet payment of ye altar-paynting as resting awand to him." This was probably one of the pictures included in the Chapel Royal inventory already quoted. Numerous other payments, before and after this date, were made to the same painter, more particularly in connection with the burial-place of James III. in the Abbey of Cambuskenneth. The accounts for this tomb ex- tend from March 1 501-2 till July 1508, during which Prat had the masons under his charge — an "Almanye" (Fleming or Ger- man) being also employed. The final payment for this tomb appears in the Exchequer Rolls under date 7th July 1508, "to the Abbot of Tungland to gif the man that suld mak the kingis lair in Cambuskenneth." This must have been the same " Fen- yeit Frier of Tungland " so humorously satirised by Dunbar, who, among his other antics, on September of the same year attempted to fly from the battlements of Stirling Castle by means of a pair of wings, the result of which was that he broke " his thie bane ; but the wyte [blame] thereof he ascribed to their beand some hen feathers in the wings, quhilk yarnit and coveted the myddin, and not the skies." ^ ^ Lesly, quoted in Tytler's Scotch Worthies, vol. iil JAMES IV. 47 The entries in the Rolls regarding this tomb illustrate to some extent the variety of work executed or superintended by the olden- time painter, carver, or sculptor. The term mason had then a very different and much wider meaning than that which is now attached to it, and the king's master-mason might mean anything between a painter and builder.^ The term master -mason was only applied to a skilful tradesman in distinction from the more inferior workman. Thus, in the " disbursements for taking doune the auld croce and building the new" in Edinburgh in 1617, seven or eight master-masons are specified, who were paid from £a to ^4, 13s. 4d. per week, the ordinary being rated at from ;^2, I OS. to ;^3, i2s. In these operations a John Taliphere was the principal one employed. The name of John Milne also occurs, the same who was subsequently appointed principal master-mason to the king on the decease of William Wallace twenty-four years later, and one of a long succession similarly employed. The only known authentic portrait of the knightly but dissolute monarch who met his death on the disastrous field of Flodden is said to be at Abbotsford — dated 1507 — by an unknown painter. A rich and beautiful portrait of the same king (engraved in Pin- kerton's Portraits), measuring over three feet by two, was at Whitehall during the short reign of James II. and that of Charles I., but must have fallen into private hands after the fire of 1697. It is described in the catalogue of Charles's pictures thus : " Item, beside the door the picture of King James IV. of Scotland, with a faulcon on his fist, done after an ancient water-colour piece — half a figure so big as life. Done by Daniel Mytens," who flourished in the reign of James I. of England. The picture was in 1795 ^^ ^^ possession of a Mr Batsford at Fulham, according to Pinkerton, but is now owned by Mr Stirling of Keir. There is evidence of the visit to Scotland and the probable practice there of a foreign painter in 1503, in the September of which year there was paid " xx French crowns ^ Probably it meant king's architect. 48 ART IN SCOTLAND. xiiij li." by the king's command to " ye Inglese payntour quhilk brocht ye figuris of ye King [Henry VII.], Queen, and Princes of England, and of our Quene." In the following November, after an interval of about two months, a propine was given to " Mynour ye Inglis payntour quhen he passit away." It is improbable that the artist would remain at the Scottish Court for two months un- employed, and from the clue thus afforded to his name, it has been surmised that he was John de Mayne, known also by the name of Maynard, employed as a painter under Torregiano on the monument for Henry VII., and also mentioned by Walpole as seal-engraver to the same king. Not only are there occasional references in obscure records to the presence of foreign artists in Scotland about this time, but, as in other periods, there are instances of the importation of works of art from abroad. In the curious ledger of Andrew Halyburton, a Scottish merchant located at Middleburg from 1493 till 1504, where he held the high office of Conservator of the Privileges of the Scottish Nation (consul as we would now define him), mention is made of John of Penicuik importing an image of St Thomas h. Becket, bought from a painter in Antwerp. The ledger also contains entries of more than one tombstone shipped, to a Scottish order, from Middleburg. 1 Gleaning again among the pages of the historians of the past, an episode in the life of the young king, James V., points to the practice of portrait-painting at his Court. Quaint old Pitscottie relates how " the king sent his ambassadors to the emperor for marriage — viz., Sir John Campbel of Loudon, knight. Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, Lyon Herald — who were well received by the emperor, and well entertained and greatly re- warded for the King of Scotland's sake ; where was presented to them two fair gentlewomen, which were the emperor's sister's daughters, which were fair and pleasant in beauty and seemly in their behaviour; for the which cause the ambassadors brought home their pictures to the king. How he was content therewith ^ Transactions of Scottish Antiquaries, vol. iii. JAMES V. IN FRANCE. 49 I cannot tell, but the marriage proceeded no further. But the king thereafter sent to France other ambassadors, who were well received, and entertained by the Duke of Vendome and his dutchess, and also by his daughters, and granted all things that they desired in the King of Scotland's name, concern- ing his marriage; but yet they had no commission to end till the king saw the gentlewoman himself. And therefore, soon after, the king seeing his realm in good rest, he dressed himself hastily to France, and sailed there within three days and three nights, till within a day's journey to France. Some say there were lords and gentlemen in his company that desired not to pass to France, but to marry with such as they favoured in Scotland. When the king was sleeping, they caused the shipper to change his course, and come homeward again to Scotland. When the king awaked out of his sleep he was offended at them all, specially to the shipper ; but because he had pity and compassion on his wife and bairns, he gave him grace at that time, but he came never in his favour again." After the king " gart " land him at the nearest port on the west of Scotland, he subsequently set sail again from Pittenweem, with a large following, and arrived at Dieppe, where the red lion of Scotland at the masthead was welcomed. Pro- ceeding through Paris to Vendome, the king " disguised himself as he had been a servant, thinking he should not be known, neither to the duke nor to his wife, or the gentlewoman who should have been his spouse, thinking that he should spy their fairness and behaviour. Yet notwithstanding, the fair lady took suspicion that the King of Scotland should be in that com- pany. Wherefore she passed to her coffer and took forth his picture, which she had gotten from Scotland by a secret moyen ; then she knew the king, and passed peartly to him, and took him by the hand, and said, ' Sir, you stand over far aside ; there- fore, if it please your Grace to talk with my father, or me, as you think for the present, a while for your pleasure, you may if you will.' " The secret being out, "there was nothing but merri- ness, ban quetting, great chear, with galliard, dancing in masks, D 50 ART IN SCOTLAND. and pretty farces and plays." But the royal game for some reason or other stole away, and some time after came under the glance of the short-lived Princess Magdalene in Paris, where she was "riding in a chariot, because she was sickly," who, from the time she saw and spoke to him, " declared that she would have no man in life to her husband but him allenarly;" and so the marriage was celebrated with great pomp in Notre Dame. James's affection for the ladies, however, was divided by a love for art, as we find from the inventories taken immediately after his death, that he possessed a great number of objects of value and taste, including specimens of fictile ware of artistic merit, some of which were afterwards in the celebrated Bernal collection.^ Besides completing the palace of Holyrood, commenced by the unfor- tunate James IV., his palace of Stirling was one of the wonders of Scotland, remarkable for the carved roof of Scottish oak of the presence-chamber, containing heads and figures, thirty- eight panels of which have been preserved. These are under- stood to be the work of John Drummond of Auchterarder, the king's master of works, assisted by " Andrew Wood, carvour," one of the Court workmen.^ The palace was constructed about 1529, and in 1777, showing signs of decay, was converted into a barracks, the panels being thrown out as rubbish. They thus became scattered among a number of individuals, some finding their way into the common jail of Stirling, where the taste of the prisoners found means to disguise them by a liberal application of white-lead and vermilion to the faces, with yellow hair and gaudy uniforms. The attention of a lady of taste having been drawn to them by a fortunate accident, many were preserved. Nine or ten were purchased by Lord Cockburn, and, on the sale of his collection, passed into that of the Marquis of Breadalbane, from whence they were removed to Langton House in Berwickshire, now the property of the Hon. Mrs Baillie Hamilton ; two in the possession of Mr John Crawford, of Leith, passed into the care of Dr David Laing ; four are the property of Mr Campbell 1 North British Review, 1858. ^ Allan Cunningham's Lives. WOOD CARVINGS. 5 1 of Monzie ; and one, that of a wingless Cupid,i given by Lord Cockburn to Lord Jeffrey, subsequently went to Mr J. Gibson Craig. The series were engraved and published in 181 7 in a volume entitled 'Lacunar Strivelensis,' and consist mostly of heads, the exceptions being grotesque figures of a Court fool, dwarf, &c., all surrounded by circular cartouches of great free- dom, showing a feeling of Italian design. ^ Among the portraits have been identified those of James V. and his queen, Mary of Guise ; James I. and his queen, Jane Beaufort ; James IV. and his queen, Margaret Tudor; the others being mere objects of surmise. Very similar to these are some of the old pulpit- carvings in King's College at Aberdeen, and also a door of black oak in the Scottish Society of Antiquaries' Museum, consisting of four panels, each containing a circular entablature, the two upper of which contain a deer's head and an expanded eagle with a star in its claws; the lower compartments contain por- traits, supposed to be those of James V. and Mary, — the whole enriched by carved foliage. These formed a portion of the decorations of the palace of Mary of Lorraine. An opinion has been expressed that the carved oak heraldic ceiling in Queen Mary's audience-chamber at Holyrood, of the sixteenth century, is by the same artist.^ Few specimens of Scottish wood-carving previous to this century now remain, but from this date onwards many very fine and per- fect examples are preserved, mainly as household furniture in the form of cabinets, chests, &c. It is chiefly, however, in ecclesias- tical decoration that our oak carvings have developed their great beauty and capabilities. The great glory of King's College of Aberdeen is its magnificent double row of oak canopied stalls, with miserere seats and lofty open screen. In a fine state of preservation, clean and sharp, the whole work is at the same time gorgeous and delicate ; the traceried panels are infinitely diversified ^ Not included in the ' Lacunar Strivelensis. ' 2 The fool is sometimes identified as being James Maekilrie, the jester of James VI., but the date is too recent. ^ Scottish Antiquaries' Proceedings. Mr Henry Laing. 52 ART IN SCOTLAND. and relieved by bold massive projections, and the treatment, while architectural, is admirably modified so as to be in harmony with the material employed. The French flamboyant style chiefly preponderates, and "a pulpit of the seventeenth century, not in itself a discreditable piece of work, shows how wood-carving de- generated when the Gothic models were abandoned. It may be stated that there is no woodwork in Scotland capable of a moment's comparison with the stalls of King's College, nor will any English specimens rival them." i Other specimens of the art seem to have formerly existed at Aberdeen, such as the high altar in the old cathedral of St Machar, "a piece of the finest workmanship of anything of the kind in Europe," which was hewed to pieces in 1649, by order and with the aid of the parish minister.^ Next to the Aberdeen wood-carvings in point of excellence are the fine stalls in Dunblane Cathedral, of about the same period, but with some traits of Flemish workmanship. A carved door of a similar class of work is preserved in the church of Fowlis Easter. Prior Halderstane, who died in 1443, "adorned the interior of the cathedral of St Andrews, as well with carved stalls as with the images of the saints ; " ^ and there may be further mentioned as a fine specimen of this beautiful art, a canopied pew filled with tracery, probably of the sixteenth century, known as Earl Patrick's pew, in the cathedral of St Magnus at Kirkwall, which is attributed to that tyrannical baron and cruel extortionist. As an example of the state of this art, there remains the mass of fine carvings on the gallery in the Crawford aisle of Kilbirnie Church, executed at the beginning of the eighteenth century or the immediately preced- ing period. It contains numerous heraldic carvings, and is sup- posed to have been executed by the orders of John, first Viscount Garnock, whose arms, impaled with those of his wife Margaret, only daughter of John, first Earl of Bute, appear on the work.^ 1 Billings's Antiquities. 2 Douglas's Account of the East Coast, quoted by Billings. 3 Billings's Antiquities. * Report of Visit in 1888 of Glasgow Archaeological vSociety, &c. I JAMES V. 53 To James V. is attributed the palace of Falkland, adorned with heads carved in stone, similar to those in wood from Stirling palace, the chapel of which David Roberts notices as still show- ing on its ceiling some fragments of the original painting and gilding. In connection with the latter, there are frequent entries in the royal accounts of considerable sums to "the quenis paintour to by colouris " between 1541 and 1542: the painter's name is not mentioned, and one entry shows that he was paid his " wageis " monthly. Additional entries in the same curious register refer to other native painters : in July 1515, Alexander Chalmour had "for ane hundrethe and xl payntit armys to the obsequijs of our Souerane Lord King James the Ferd, quham God assolze, his pay deliuerit in Sanct Gelis Kirk, price of ilk pece tuelf pennys, summa viij li. ; " and in 1535, Andro Watson was paid for " paint- ing V dusan armes v li." In further evidence of the king's taste for pictures, the same year contains an entry of xvij li. for " cer- tane fyne picturis of Flanders coft fra John Brown, to the kingis grace." Several specimens of the painter's art of this date are in the Scottish Antiquarian Museum, consisting of portions of the painted ceiling of Mary's palace bearing emblematic devices and mottoes, and an oil-painting on panel representing the infant Saviour, inscribed " Opus FeHcis de Scotie, 1488." The collection of the late C K. Sharpe included a group of musicians, possibly one of the painted " brodis " mentioned in the " Quene Regentis Paintrie." Numerous portraits seem to have been painted in Scotland during this reign, among which may be mentioned a full-length of the king's natural son when a child, said to have been destroyed in a house belonging to the family of Errol in 1586. Lord Seton, ancestor of the Winton family, when ambassador from Mary of Guise, it is said became acquainted with Sir Anthony More, who accompanied him to Scotland, and, among other works, executed for that noble a portrait group, which Charles I. on his visit to Seton House admired so much that the proprietor offered 54 ART IN SCOTLAND. it for the king's acceptance, who, however, declined to deprive the owner of its possession.^ A curious portrait of the Queen Regent, in a high bordered lace cap and a ruif, with the monogram " Maria " burned into the back of the panel, was discovered in the Laigh Hall of Edinburgh, where assemblies both of the Kirk and Estates had often been held. It formed one of the wall panels previously plastered over to level the wall, and passed into the possession of Alexander Mackay, Esq., of Black Castle. 2 A remarkable pair of portraits of James and Mary are in the possession of the ducal house of Devonshire, bear- ing the conjugal arms of the houses of Stuart and Guise, and an inscription recording the king twenty-eight and the queen twenty- four years of age. They were lent by the Marquis of Hartington to the Edinburgh Portrait Exhibition of 1884, and drawings of them were formerly in the possession of Lord Orford, whose family probably still retains them. Mary is represented with a red-and- white carnation in her hand, and the king holds a jewel of St Andrew, with a minutely finished gold medal on his bonnet. They are similar to each other in the pose of the figure and arrange- ment of the hands, and show no small amount of skill, but whether by a native artist or not is unknown. They are probably French, and enclosed in one frame. In connection with the same queen, Dr Wilson thus describes a fragment of a curious painting in her chapel, filling an arch on one of the walls, divided into two compartments by very elegant ornamental borders : " The picture on the left represented a young man kneeling before an altar, on which stood an open vessel amid flames, while from a dark cloud overhead a hand issued, holding a ladle, and just about to dip it into the vessel. A castellated mansion with turrets and gables, in the style of the sixteenth century, appeared in the distance ; and at the top there was inscribed on a scroll the words ' Demum Purgabitur.' In the other compartment 1 The Bee, 1793 : article by Sir G. Chalmers, who refers to a then existing copy by a French painter, locality not mentioned. 2 Dr Wilson's Memorials of Edinburgh. PAINTED CEILING IN EDINBURGH. 55 a man of venerable aspect was seen, who held in his hands a heart, which he appeared to be offering to a figure like a bird with huge black wings. Above this were the words ' Impossible est.' The other portions of the apartment were decorated in the same style." The same enthusiastic antiquary mentions an old house of about 1590, in the vicinity of the chapel, one of the ceilings of which was "decorated with a series of curious and interesting sacred paintings on wood. A large circular compartment in the centre contained the figure of our Saviour with an aureole, and His left hand resting on a royal orb ; within the encircling border in gilded Roman letters on a rich blue ground the words ' Ego sum Via, Veritas, et Vita, 14 Johne.' The paintings in the large compart- ment represented Jacob's Dream, Christ asleep in the Storm, the Baptism of Christ, and the Vision of the Apocalypse, sur- mounted by the symbols of the Evangelists. The distant land- scape of the Lake of Galilee in the second picture, by a curious but not unusual licence of the early artists, is represented by a view of Edinburgh, including Salisbury Crags and Edinburgh Castle. Other edifices introduced into this curious background serve to fix its date — between 1606 and 1660. The fifth picture, the most curious of all, exhibits an allegory representing probably the Christian life. A ship of antique form is seen in full sail, and bearing on its pennon and stern the symbol I.H.S. A crowned figure stands on the deck looking forward to a burning city in the distance, and above him the word V^. On the mainsail is in- scribed ' Caritas,' and over the stern, which is in the form of an ancient galley, ' [Sajpiencia.' Death appears as a skeleton riding on a dark horse, amid the waves immediately in front of the vessel, armed with a bow and arrow, which he is pointing at the figure in the ship ; while a figure similarly armed, and mounted on a huge dragon, follows its wake, entitled ' Persecutio,' and above it a winged demon, over whom is the word * Diabolus.' In the midst of these perils there is seen in the sky a radiance surrounding the Hebrew word ' Jehovah ' j and from this symbol of the Deity a hand issues, taking hold of a line attached to the vessel. The whole 56 ART IN SCOTLAND. series is executed with great spirit, though now much injured by- damp and decay. The broad borders between these are richly decorated with every variety of flowers, fruit, harpies, birds, and fancy devices, and divide the ceiUng into irregular square and round compartments, with raised and gilded stars at their inter- sections. The fifth picture, of which we have endeavoured to convey some idea, possesses peculiar interest as a specimen of early Scottish art. It embodies, though under different forms, the leading features of the immortal allegory contributed by John Bunyan." During the stirring times of the Reformation, after the battle of Pinkie field was fought on "blacke Saturday" in September 1547, on the field "among other banners was found a banner of white sarcinet, whereupon was painted a woman with her haire about her shoulders, kneeling before a crucifixe, and on her right hand a church; after that, writtin in great Roman letters, AFFLICTS SPONSiE NE OBLiviscARis ! Whether it was the Abbot of Dunfermlin's, or the Bishop of Sanct Andrewes', it is uncertane; but she was fashiouned like a cursed queane, that would plucke her husband by the pate except she had her will, rather than like a meeke spous, that went about by humble submission to crave her husband's helpe for redresse of things amisse.''^ If the "glorious painted Ladie," and the painted "boord" which was produced for the Scottish Reformers to kiss during their imprison- ment in the French galleys, represented nothing more pleasing than this is described to have been, it is little wonder that one of the martyrs cast it into the river instead, saying, " She is light eneugh; lett her learne to swimme." A notable man in his time, both as an ecclesiastic and a lawyer, was Robert Reid, who succeeded as Bishop to the see of Kirk- wall in 151 1. He was also Abbot of Kinloss, and latterly, in 1543, President of the Court of Session.^ He was one of the ambassadors to France in connection with the marriage of Mary ^ Calder wood's Historic of the Kirk of Scotland. 2 Catalogue of the Lords of Session. Edinburgh, 1798. ABBOT REID AND ANDREW BAIRHUM. 57 Queen of Scots with the Dauphin, and died at Dieppe on the 14th September 1558. He has the reputation of having completed the western extremity of the nave, with its porch and window, in the cathedral of St Magnus,^ in a rather earlier style than that of the period. In describing the many good deeds of Abbot Robert Reid (of Kinloss), Ferrerius tells us that in the year 1538 he engaged a painter, Andrew Bairhum, celebrated in his art, but withal contentious and difficult to manage. Andrew was retained for three years at Kinloss, during which he painted three tables for the chapels with saints and evangelists. He painted also, but in the lighter style which the writer mentions as being so prevalent throughout Scotland {sed pictura leviore qucd nunc est per Scotiam receptissima\ the Abbot's chamber and oratory, as well as a larger apartment.^ Possibly the same artist may have had to do with other works of this kind of the period, such as the frescoes formerly in the church of St Congan at Turiff,^ the somewhat similar paintings in the Priory of Pluscardine on the top of the gate leading into the chancel,* and those in the parish church of Guthrie. The latter were destroyed during the repairing of the church in 181 7, owing to the building having remained roofless for nearly three months.^ When we consider the ease with which such works could be destroyed during the time of the Reformation, the accidents which have revealed or preserved some fragments till our own time, and from contemporaneous references, we may safely conclude that few churches in Scotland, during the late fifteenth and the six- teenth centuries, were destitute of similar decorations. ^ Billings's Antiquities. 2 Hist. Abbat. Monasterii de Kynlos, p. 51. Bannatyne Club, quoted in Scottish Antiquaries' Proceedings. 3 Figure of St Ninian, reproduced in vol. vi. of Scottish Antiquaries' Pro- ceedings. ^ Billings's Antiquities. ^ Scottish Antiquaries' Proceedings, vol. ii. 58 CHAPTER IV. Late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries — Queen Mary — Her portraits — John Acheson — James VI. — His receptioti in Edinburgh — Baptism of Prince of Wales in 1594 — Late sixteenth-century porti'aits — Criminal art — Arnold Brotikhorst — Esther Inglis — Holyrood decorations for James VI. In evidence of the growing taste for art on the part of the Scot- tish nobility during the late sixteenth century, may be mentioned the extravagant Regent Morton, who in 1573, being lord of an ample fortune, "maintained his retinue with the dignity of moderation in food and aparrell, converting both publique and private riches to honour and magnificence, erecting that palace of Dalkeith to his no small charge, adorning it with tapestry and incomparable pieces of art, so that its splendour soars to a majes- ticall statlinesse."^ Sixteen years later, Sir Duncan Campbell of Glenurchy, who had a craze for building and decorating, spent a considerable portion of his ample means in hiring artists to deco- rate his house at Taymouth, or Balloch as it was then called, and which at a later period became the repository of many of the family and other portraits, by Jamesone of Aberdeen and various artists. Twelve years later, the Marquis of Huntly, in rebuilding his castle of Strathbogie, had it decorated also; and according to the Statistical Account, most of the apartments were then in a tolerable state of preservation, particularly the ceilings, which were ornamented with a variety of paintings in small divisions, contain- ing emblematic figures. Similar work was also about the same 1 History of Scotland during the Minority of King James. London, 1646. PAINTED CEILINGS. 59 time executed for the laird of Edzell, in his house on the Esk in Forfarshire, the roof of which was richly decorated, and so lately as the middle of the present century, showed traces of its former grandeur, with the Gothic inscription of " Ye Temple of Honour." About the same period, the lower hall of Borthwick Castle was also built and decorated ; seven panels from the ceiling of Dean House (1614) are preserved in the Museum of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries ; the ceiling of an old house at Linlithgow, demolished in 1867, contained the heraldic blazons of fifteen barons and twenty-two earls ; 1 and of a later period, the painted gallery of Pinkie House contains elaborate decorations accom- panied by moral apophthegms.^ Some curious decorations in black and white, of about 1620, are described as existing on the ceiling of Earlston Hall in Fifeshire ; figures of Faith, Hope, &c., are accompanied by those of animals, the species being named : thus, a figure of a sheep is inscribed " Ane sort of ane Shep," and a sow and pig " Svyn Baib " — z'.e., swine and babe.^ It must, however, be understood that these were exceptional cases, entirely confined to the wealthier nobles. We have it on the authority, among others, of the Spanish ambassador of Ferdi- nand and Isabella, that society in Scotland was then in a very rude condition, the natives spending all their time in wars, and when there was no war, fighting with one another ; and the king residing little in towns, occupying his time in moving from castle to abbey, administering justice, and on other affairs of the state. Art could hardly be appreciated to any great extent by a people, many of the better class of whom were not very particular about cleanliness and dress, and whose dwellings, even among high families, were often limited to the accommodation which was afford- ed by a square tower with its adjuncts, containing rooms as destitute of comfort as they were of elegance. When the un- fortunate Mary arrived in Edinburgh in 1561, the palace of Holyrood, so different from the aspect which it now presents, was ^ Figured in Scottish Antiquaries' Proceedings, vol. vii. 2 Description in Billin gs's Anti quities. ^ Scottish Antiquaries' Proceedings. 60 ART IN SCOTLAND. one of the few exceptions, as it had only a few years earlier been so far completed by James V., and probably fitted up with all the, at that time, modern conveniences. The art of printing had only some fifty years previously been introduced into Scotland, and began to be applied to the aid of our national literature; and although our poets had before this produced many works of great excellence and beauty, the art of the painter as a profession can hardly be said to have existed. Whatever taste and love for art Queen Mary had acquired during her residence in France, must have received a sad shock when she saw how little respect it received in Scotland, even in the art of the architect, which had developed our noblest abbeys and cathedrals. In the popular demonstration which was got up by the citizens of Edinburgh two weeks after her arrival, we have some idea of the taste of the people. The description of part of the pageant relates how, " when hir grace came ford wart to the butter-trone of the said burgh, the nobilitie and convoy fordsaid precedand, at the whilk butter-trone thair was ane port made of tymber in maist honourable maner, cullourit with fyne collouris, hungin with syn- drie armes, upoun the whilk port wes singiend certane barneis in the maist hevinlie wyis : under the whilk port thair wes ane cloud opynnand with four levis, in the whilk was put ane bonny barne. And when the quenes hienes was cumand throw the said port, the said cloud opynnit, and the barne discendit down as it had bene ane angell, and deliverit to her hienes the keyis of the town, togidder with ane Bybill and ane psalme-buik coverit with fyne purpourit velvet ; and after the said barne had spoken some small speitches, he deliverit alsua to hir hienes three writtingis the tenour thairof is uncertane." This being done, " the barne ascen- dit in the cloud, and the clud stekit."^ Of the ill-starred Queen Mary, it is doubtful if we can authen- ticate a single portrait as having been done from life. It is known that in her youth, in France, she sat to the Court paint- ers Janet and Porbus ; and in the collection pf Charles I. 1 Chambers's Domestic Annals. QUEEN MARY. gj there was a small whole-length mentioned in the catalogue as the work of "Jennet," and brought from Scotland.^ It is prob- able that her earliest portrait from life was done by Fran9ois Clouet, called Janet or Jehannet, Court painter to Henry II. of France, and painted, according to Prince Labanoff, about i555» for the purpose of sending to her mother, Mary of Guise in Edinburgh. Concerning this portrait. Prince Labanoff men- tions the drawing in the possession of the Earl of Carlisle as being the type ; but this is doubted, the drawing showing her as if at a much more mature age — she being then only thirteen or four- teen. The portrait painted by Peter Porbus, in France, also from life, may not improbably be the one which Prince Labanoff pos- sesses in his collection at St Petersburg. It was bought in Paris during the first Revolution, and represents her in the dignity of Queen of France; but notwithstanding the most ingenious re- search, it is difficult to put one's finger, as already said, on a well- authenticated portrait, and it is a poor test of the genuineness of any to be referred to the sculptured figure on her tomb, executed after death. M. Teulet has noted the fact that on the 13th Feb- ruary 1566-67 a payment was made to Jehan de Court, who suc- ceeded Janet as Court painter to the French king.^ The many claims put forward on behalf of portraits painted during her con- finement in Scotland and England will not bear the light of in- vestigations which have been made. Among her many portraits may, however, be mentioned that which was bequeathed by Eliza- beth Curie to the Scotch College at Douai, and described in her will as "un grand portrait de Sa Majeste vetu comme elle etoit h, son martyre." ^ This portrait, an often copied one, was intrusted by the Rev. Mr Farquharson, President of the Douai College, to the care of a niece of Martin of Douai, during the time of the ^ Pinkerton's Portraits. 2 Among the gentlemen attached to Queen Mary's household, Miss Strick- land also mentions this Jehan de Court as receiving ;^240 per annum.— Queens of Scotland, vol. iv. 3 Sir Duncan Campbell, from MS. of Rev. John Farquharson, President of the Douai College, 1793. Letter to the * Standard,' March 6, 1888. 62 ART IN SCOTLAND. Reign of Terror. She concealed it in a condemned chimney-vent, from whence it was removed by Mr Farquharson to the English convent at Paris, where it remained till 183 1, when the late Dr Paterson, Catholic Bishop of Edinburgh, then in Paris, brought it over to Scotland, and it was deposited in Blairs College. Of the many spurious portraits which exist, a great number must be assigned to the brushes of a son of Sir John Medina and John Alexander. The late David Roberts, the distinguished artist, used to relate that when a boy he was frequently sent messages by his master to an artist in Edinburgh called Robertson, who lived by doing portraits of Queen Mary, Prince Charles, and such- like. The queen's portraits he varied by a red or black dress, or otherwise, a favourite inscription on the back being, " From the original in the King of France's closet," unless an original was wanted, in which case the portrait received the proper quantity of smoke and varnish.^ Although neither painter, sculptor, nor architect, a Scottish artist of another kind is worthy of mention in connection with the life of Queen Mary. This was " Johnne Achesoun, Maister Cunyeour," who figures largely in the history of the Scottish coinage, and who went to Paris for the purpose of cutting dies with portraits of the young Queen Mary, in 1553, for the only known coins of that date. These were used for the extremely rare testoon and half-testoon bearing heads of the queen, and the fact of his visit is accurately registered in the French archives of the period.2 Numerous small portraits were at different times given by the queen to her friends. Thus, on the 9th of January 1575, she wrote to the Archbishop of Glasgow and Cardinal of 1 The late James Drummond, R.S.A. Communicated to Scottish Anti- quarian Society. 2 "Ce jourdhuy xxi jour d'Octobre Mil. Veliij a este permis a Jehan Acheson, tailleur de la Mounaie d'Escosse, de graver pilles et trousseaulx [piles and trussels] aux protraictz de la Royne d'Escosse, par lui exilez a la dit court, a la charge de fere les espreuves en la monnaie de Paris, parentre lun des gardes pour icelles faictes estre apportees en la dit court. " — Proceed- ings of Scottish Antiquaries ; also Mr Cochran Patrick's Coinage of Scot- land. QUEEN MARY. 63 Lorraine for a costly present for Elizabeth. The same letter contains the following passage : " II y a de mes amis en ce pays qui demandent de mes peinctures. Je vous prye m'en faire faire quatre, dont il fauldra qu'il en soyent quatre {sic) enchassez en or ; et me les envoyez secretement, et le plus tost que pourrez." 1 A curious anecdote occurs in the Hawthornden MS. of about the same time, rather earlier, in which Jean de Court's name appears connected with the queen's household. " Queen Marie having sent upon ane brode the portrait of her husband Henry and her owne, w*- the portraite of David Ricci in prospective, to the Cardinall of Lorraine, her uncle, he praised much the workmanship and cunning of the painter ; but having asked what hee was that was drawen by them, and hearing it was her secre- tarye, ' Je voudrois (said hee) qu'on oistoit ce petit vilain de la ! Qu'a il k faire d'estre si pres ? ' After the slaughter of Ricci, one told him that the Scots had done what he desired. ' Car ils avoyent oste le petit vilain aupres de la Royne.' " 2 The poor queen's love for art seems to have afforded her the means of whiling away many a weary hour during her captivity, by the sewing of tapestry and suchlike work, many specimens of which are still preserved, and the arranging of the colours in which, we are told, helped to distract her mind from thinking constantly on her unfortunate condition. Among the numerous doubtful relics preserved at Holyrood is a small Madonna rising above a sea in which a dolphin is sport- ing, and which vulgar tradition sometimes attributes to her pencil. The picture is painted in oil on a slab of marble or alabaster, and with the exception of most of the upper part of the figure, is nearly quite obliterated. It is skilfully painted, rather Italian in style and manipulation, and probably formed a part of the furnishings of a private altar brought with her from France, and overlooked in the vigilant search of the Regent Murray— a supposition suggested 1 Mr Albert Way's preface to Catalogue of Antiquities, &c. (Edinburgh, 1859), quoting from Prince Labanoff. 2 Mr Albert Way's Catalogue of Antiquities, &c. Edinburgh, 1859. 64 ART IN SCOTLAND. by the nature of the subject and the introduction of the dolphin. The extreme state of popular feeling manifested during the Refor- mation period is a reason why even small works of this kind have not been preserved. A follower of the Roman Catholic faith would encounter risk as well as personal danger in attempting to preserve any work whatever, and it is probably to one of these that an entry in the burgh records of Glasgow refers under date 1574. The entry is in reference to a dispute about some goods which were claimed by a Maister Robert Herbertson as heir to his mother's property, and was settled " in ane court of ye toon, halden be James Hamilton of Torrens, prouest of Glasgw." One of the articles in dispute is described in the record as " ane brod, paynted upon ye samyn ye image of our Lady. Pryce yairof xvi s." The reign of the sixth James was a little more auspicious for art, which he seemed willing to encourage so far as his own miserliness and a parsimonious Parliament would permit. He was fond of pageantry ; and when as a boy-king he summoned his Parliament at Edinburgh in 1579, and made his first public entry into his capital, as if in anticipation of this taste great pre- parations were made. He was received at the West Port by the magistrates under a pall of purple velvet. An allegory of " King Solomon, with the twa wemen," was displayed, symbolical of kingly wisdom. " The haill streets were spread with flowers, and the forehouses of the streets by the whilk the king passit were all hung with magnific tapestry, with painted histories, and with the effigies of noble men and women." Some efforts at historical painting seem to have been attempted, as, according to Hume of Godscroft, Ruthven, Earl of Gowrie, had a gallery built for him- self, which he decorated with portraits. He also began the great gallery of the old palace of Scone, the roof of which contained groups of figures in ovals with ornamental borders, each group containing a portrait of the king on horseback, surrounded by his attendants. This Ruthven probably acquired his taste in Italy, as, after the mysterious conspiracy with which he was so fatally connected, a curious emblem or impresa which he had left was BAPTISM OF PRINCE ROYAL. 65 found hanging in a dancing academy in Padua, and which was transmitted to the king by Ottavio Baldi from Venice.^ Under this reign the house of Ravelstone was built by George Fowlis, on the ceiling of the principal chamber of which were painted the amusements and occupations of people during the twelve months of the year in compartments, each distinguished by the corre- sponding sign of the zodiac. The centre was occupied by a group of angels in a circle performing a vocal and instrumental concert, in which a bagpipe is introduced.^ The old Chapel Royal at Stirling has been already slightly re- ferred to, and on the 19th of February 1594, the noble and most potent Prince of Scotland " was born in the castle of Striuiling upon Tuesday, upon which occasion the King's Majestic sent for the nobles of his land, and to all the capitall burrows thereof, to haue their aduise how he should proceed for the solemnization of his royal baptisme, and what princes he should send too. . . . Because the Chapell Royall was ruinous and too little, concluded that the old chapell should be utterly rased and a new erected in the same place. . . . These propositions at length considered, they all, with a voluntarie delibiration, graunted unto his Majestie the summe of an hundred thousand pounds money of Scotland." Many ambassadors were invited from foreign countries, and after consequent delays, chiefly caused by the ambassador from England, the baptism was performed on the 30th of August 1594. The Chapel Royal on the occasion was richly hung with costly tapestries. Part of the entertainment consisted of a chariot " which should have been drawne in by a lyon, but because his presence might have brought some fears to the nearest, or that the sight of the lights and torches might have commoued his tamenes," a Moor supphed its place.^ It is hoped that the Moor aggravated his roaring to the pitch resolved upon by Bottom the weaver at the nuptials of Theseus and the fair Hippolyta. ^ Burton's History of Scotland. 2 Cunningham's Lives of Artists. 3 History of Scotland during the Minority of James. London, 1646. £ 66 ART IN SCOTLAND. As would naturally be expected, numerous portraits were painted in Scotland in the latter part of the sixteenth century, the dates of which can only be guessed by the probable ages of the persons represented. Among such may be mentioned those of Esme Stewart, first Duke of Lennox, the most worthy and innocent of the favourites of James VI. ; John, Earl of Mar, Regent of Scotland ; his brother, Sir Alexander Erskine of Gogar, — by painters unknown, which, with that of John, High Treasurer, were all in the Alva collection before it was scattered by civil war and forfeiture. At Lauder Castle was a portrait, now the property of Baroness de Eresby, of State Secretary Maitland of Lethington, who died in 1573. It is ascribed to Mireveldt. If so, it must have been painted after death, as that artist was not born till 1567. To these may be added a half-length portrait of a man in the costume and armour of about the same period, badly restored, which was formerly in StirHng Castle, attributed to the school of CIouet.i Among the many uses to which the art of painting is still applied is that of appealing to the vulgar taste by exhibiting pictures and painted banners, fortunately now confined to a humorous kind, and political demonstrations and processions. A rude picture often conveys, at a glance, an idea or incident more forcibly than a printed pasquinade, and is sometimes more successful in exciting ridicule or expressing a covert insult. The toilsome but evident pleasure of the bearers of such would reach its highest intensity if it could be possible to flaunt these in the presence of the persons burlesqued or satirised ; and if the pro- minent leaders of either of the now contending political factions could possibly have been guilty of some of the atrocities so often executed unpunished in the good old times, it is easy to under- stand how a painted representation, no matter how rudely done, would excite popular passion. Queen Mary is known to have been the victim of rude caricatures circulated in Edinburgh, and ^ Pinkerton's Portraits j The Antiquary, &c. MURDER OF EARL OF MURRAY. 6/ after the meeting of the factions of Morton and Bothwell at Carberry Hill, among the other insults which she received, had displayed before her a black banner, on which was painted a ghastly representation of the young prince kneeling beside the body of the murdered Darnley, with the motto, "Judge and avenge my cause, O Lord." Fourteenth-century Italian history presents us with a parallel case, when the dominion of the young and equally unfortunate Joanna of Naples was invaded by Louis of Hungary, whose followers bore a like standard showing the murder of her husband Andreas.^ Another instance in which native art was applied to a somewhat similar purpose is carefully related by Calderwood as occurring in 1592, when, on "the 8th of Februar, Edinburgh (was) full of mourning and lamentation, earlie in the morning, for a cruell murther committed in the night before, upon the Erie of Murrey, by the Erie of Huntlie. He went out of Edinburgh from the king, and that same night sett the hous of Dunnybrissil on fire, so that the Erie of Murrey was forced to come furth, and was discovered by some sparkes of fire in his knapskall, and so was killed and cruellie demained. The Shireff of Murrey was Ukewise killed. . . . The Erie of Murrey's mother, accompanied with her friends, brought over her Sonne's and the Shireff of Murrey's deid corps, in litters, to Leith, to be brought from thence to be buried in the yle of the Great Kirk of Edinburgh, in the good Regent's tombe ; and, as some report, to be made first a spectacle to the people at the Croce of Edinburgh, But they were stayed by command of the king. Captain Gordon was left for dead at Dinnybrissel : his hatt, his purse, his gold, his weapons, were taikin by one of his owne companie ; his shankes were pulled off. He was taikin in to the Erie of Murrey's mother, and was cherished with meate, and drinke, and clothing. A rare exemple ! She brought him over with her Sonne's corps, to seeke justice. The Erie of Murrey's mother caused draw her Sonne's picture as he was demained, and presented it to the king in a fyne lane cloath, with lamentatiouns, and earnest sute for 1 Life of Queen Joanna of Naples. 68 ART IN SCOTLAND. justice. But little regard was had to the mater," as for various reasons the king retained a hatred to the murdered Earl.^ Every reader of Scottish history is familiar with the like application of " criminal art," as it might be called, at an earlier period, in the case of the brutal Highland chief MacDonald, who, after robbing a poor woman of her cow, nailed horse-shoes on her feet, that she might the easier, as he said, carry her complaint to the king, and who in 1430, with twelve accomplices, expiated their crime by being shod in the same manner, and exhibited to the public for three days previous to their execution, habited in a robe on which was painted a representation of the brutal outrage per- petrated on the poor woman. The medieval custom of reversing the shield of a knight who had been disgraced or had incurred dishonour, is in a manner shown as being applied in another form, and also illustrates the popularity of painting in Scotland at the period. This was applied to the case of Sir James Johnston, who was made Warden of the West Marches after the battle of Dryfe-sands in 1593, concerning whom, on account of the constantly recurring troubles in Dum- friesshire, it is chronicled that on the 27th of May 1598 "the Laird of Johnstown his pictor (was) hung at the crosse (of Edinburgh), with his heid dounwart, and declarit ane mansworne man." 2 A tragic and curious story is often erroneously quoted from Pitcairn's ' Criminal Trials.' A town officer of Edinburgh, named Archibald Cornwall, having seized some furniture for debt, had it removed for sale to the Market Cross, near to which stood the public gibbet. The record of the affair tells us that on "the same day (April 27, 1601) Archibald Cornell, towne officer, (was) hangit at the crosse, and hung on the gallows 24 hours; and the caus quhairfore he wes hangit : he being an un- mereciful, greidie creatur, he poyndit ane honest manis hous, and amongst the rest, he poyndit the king and queins picturis ; and quhen he came to the crosse to compryse the same, ^ Calderwood's Historic of the Kirk of Scotland. ^ Birrel's Diurnal. ARNOLD BRONKHORST. 69 he hung thame up upone twa naillis on the same gallows, to be comprysitj and thai being sene, word gead to the king and queine, quhairupone he wes apprehendit and hangit." The grim tragedy was not a sudden ebullition of anger on the king's part, and is a striking example of his cruel cold-blooded nature. The "tressonable fact" occurred on the 15th of April, and the trial, proceeding with all the formalities of the law, was held on the 25th, two days after which he was executed. It does not seem even to have been proved that he did more than entertain the intention of hanging the portraits, as he was only '* preissing to haif hung the same " on the gallows, but was prevented by the bystanders warning him of the indiscretion and his consequent danger; and it has been noted that the assize included eight tailors, probably hangers-on at the Court for Court patronage. It is added that, on returning from the execution, the town council made it law "that nane of their Majesties or Graces pictures or portraits be poyndit, roupit, or comprysit for any manner of cause." It is during the reign of James VI. that the first mention ap- pears of the appointment of a Court painter proper in Scotland, " with all fees, duties, and casualties, usit and wont " — an appoint- ment now recognised in the form of the Queen's Limner for Scotland. This office was held by Arnold Bronkhorst, or Arthur van Brownchurst as he is sometimes called, a Fleming who is said to have come to Scotland associated with some others, with whom the name of Nicholas Hilliard, goldsmith and miniature-painter to Queen Elizabeth, is sometimes connected. It is stated that these came in order to make efforts for working the gold-mines of Lanarkshire ; but the details are obscure, and to some extent rest on tradition. Some gold, however, found its way into Arnold's pocket in another manner than as a member of a speculative gold company, as it is known that he received sixty-four pounds for painting three portraits — viz., "ane portrait of his Majesty fra the belt upward, ane portrait of his Majesty full length," and "ane other portrait of Maister George Buchanan," — besides the gift of 70 ART IN SCOTLAND. a hundred merks "as ane gratitude for his repairing to this country." ^ Another artist of humbler pretensions, but possibly of better art, may be noticed of this period, although only a caligraphist. Her name was Esther Inglis (sometimes called Anglois, Anglus, and Langlois), and Scottish records usually mention her as a French- woman settled in Edinburgh, while M. Michel refers to her as being established in France, but surely of a Scottish family. She was born in France in 15 71, from whence her father, Nicholas Lang- lois, a Huguenot, and her mother, Marie Prisott, fled with their infant children after the atrocious St Bartholomew Massacre of 24th August 1572. It is surmised that the family were related to a Protestant minister, Jean Langlois, who was martyred at Lyons in the year of the massacre. They settled in Edinburgh, the treasurer's accounts of which show that Nicholas and his wife were paid for teaching in the French school there, between 1578 and 1585. She was married in Edinburgh about 1596 to Bar- tholomew Kello, although continuing to retain her maiden name, and removed to London, after which her husband became " Cure de Willingale-Spayne," near Chelmsford, to which he had been collated in 1607 by the king, who was patron. Kello's father was the first Presbyterian minister of the parish of Spott in East Lothian, and in a fit of madness strangled his wife, for which he sufiered the extreme penalty of the law in 1570. In the Sloane Collection of the British Museum there is a little MS. " escrit k Lislebourg par Esther Langlois, Frangoise 1586." The Bodleian Library contains *Les Proverbes de Solomon,' beautifully written in French of about the date 1624, in which the headings and endings of the chapters and the margins are decorated with pen-and-ink drawings, in addition to the arms of the Earl of Essex, to whom the ^ Chambers's Domestic Annals. Another painter of the name of Bronkhorst, but named John, born at Utrecht in 1603, appears in connection with Scottish portraiture as the painter of a portrait of Sir Conrad Ruthven, a Scottish knight of about 1650, published in 1744 in the " Recueil d'Estampes d'apres les tableaux de M. Boyer d'Aguilles, k Aix," and reproduced by Pinker- ton in 1795. JAMES VI. AT HOLYROOD. 7 1 volume is dedicated. Other drawings are at Christ Church, Oxford, one being dated from Edinburgh 1599. Her portrait by herself in pen and ink is reproduced in the sixth volume of the ' Proceedings of the Scottish Antiquaries ' ; another in oil is in the Scottish Portrait Gallery, inscribed "Anno Domini 1595" — a curious picture, in which she is represented wearing a tall black hat, with a " piped " collar, holding a book and a fan. She died in 1624 or 1625.1 As an instance of James VI.'s love for art — which was some- what curbed by the jealous zeal of the Northern Presbyterians regarding "the hanging of pensils and brods, and offering of honours and arms and suchlike scandalous monuments in the Kirk " — when the Scottish emulator of Solomon took a fancy to have the chapel of Holyrood decorated for his reception in 161 7 with pictures and wood-carvings, the rumour filled the Presby- terians with alarm. He had arranged to send a cargo of these from London, but on becoming aware of the feeling which existed in Edinburgh and made known to him by his advisers, he withheld the consignment, and instead of sending the images and pictures, wrote the Presbyterians a lengthy letter, or rather a lecture, in which he said, " We were at first afraid that some of the directors or workmen had been Papists, and so without our knowledge had intended there to erect such idolatrous images and painted pictures as those of that profession had been in use to adore." He then gives as reasons for not proceeding with the work, " the difficulty and longsomeness thereof," and adds, " Do not deceive yourselves with a vain imagination of anything done therein for ease of your hearts or ratifying your error of your judgment of that graven work ; which is not of an idolatrous kind like to images and painted pictures adored and worshipped by Papists, but merely intended for ornament and decoration of the place wherein we shall sit, and might have been wrought as well with figures of lions, dragons, and devils as with those of patriarchs and apostles. But as we must wonder at your ignorance, and teach you thus to 1 Proceedings of Scottish Antiquaries ; Michel's Ecossais en France, &c. 72 ART IN SCOTLAND. distinguish the one and the other, so are we persuaded that none of you would have been scandaUsed or offended if the said figures of lions, dragons, and devils had been carved and put up in lieu of those of the patriarchs and apostles."^ Calderwood^ gives some further details concerning the statues of the apostles and evangelists, from which we must infer that these were actually- placed in Holyrood, ready to be gilded and set up, and quotes a letter from the Bishop of Galloway to Mr Patrick Simpson, minister of Stirling, in which he says, " Concerning images, we have gotten them discharged, upon a letter we wrote ; . . . but yet with a sharp rebuke, and check of ignorance, both from his Maj. and Ganterberrie, calling our skarring at them, scandalum acceptum, sed non datiimr The bishop, however, took his physic with a good grace, as he adds, "We bear the reproof the more patiently, because we have obtained that which we craved." The work done at Holyrood on this occasion seems to have been directed by an Englishman — Nicholas Stone ; and, in fact, there does not appear the name of a Scottish artist in connection with the Gourt of James in England, although many of the Scottish nobility were painted by foreigners — among whom were Paul van Somer, Gornelius Jansen, and Daniel Mytens, all good painters of their time. The diary of this Nicholas Stone, discovered by Virtue, and partly published by Walpole, gives the following entry under date July 1616 : "Sent into Scotland, where I undertook to do work in the King's Ghapple and for the King's Glossett, and the Organ, so much as came to 450/. of wainscote worke, the which I performed, and had my money well payed; and 50/. was given to drink, whereof I had 20/. given me by the King's command" — drink-silver being often a prominent item of expenditure in such works. Among the assistants em- ployed in his work generally by Stone, appears the name of John Schuman, who executed the monument to Lord Belhaven in the Abbey Chapel at Holyrood.^ ^ Burton's History of Scotland. 2 Edition 1678, p. 673. ^ Walpole's Anecdotes. JAMES VI. ' 73 An interesting passage in the anonymous correspondence to Sir George Bowes indicates the presence of a foreign artist in Stirling, while the young king, James VI., was detained by the influence of Morton. The writer says — " The Flemish painter is in Stirling, in working of the king's portraiture, but expelled forth of the place at the beginning of thir troubles. I am presently travelling to obtain him licence to see the king's presence thrice in the day, till the end of the work : quhilk will be no sooner perfected nor nine days, after the obtaining of this licence." Such a portrait was lent to the "Stuart Exhibition" in London in 1889 by the Hon. R. Baillie Hamilton, and may possibly have been done by De Heere of Ghent (i 534-1 584), who is said to have painted two portraits of Lord Darnley, husband of Queen Mary, and his brother Charles Stewart, afterwards father of the Lady Arabella. If we consider the many vicissitudes which the country under- went up till and long after this period, it is not a matter of wonder that so few remains of art exist in Scotland. To these were now added very extensive removals to London, not only by James and his successors, but no doubt by the Scottish gentry, who followed the Court. The already mentioned Holyrood altar- piece is an instance, the importance and historical nature of which served to identify it ; but how many other works may also have been removed, and no traces of their identity left, it is impossible even to guess. Art at all times, and more especially in the far past, has only flourished under the patronage of the wealthy, and mostly under the influence of a king and Court; and so, for a time at least, whatever artists we may have had, found that a country with no Court, and where wealth had not yet been amassed by trade and commerce as in the present day, was but a sorry mart to which to confine the sale of their work, or wherein they could expect much employment or remuneration. 74 CHAPTER V. George Jamesone — Destruction of art -work in the seventeenth century — Painted screen in Elgin Cathedral — Lord Traquair's popish trinkets — Holy rood portraits by De Witt — Early topographers — Alexander Alesse — Gordon of Straloch — Seventeenth-century a^'chitects — William Schaw — David Ander- son — The Mylnes — Sir William Bruce — William Wallace — William Aytoun. Tradition and meagre and unsatisfactory detail cease towards the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the first native Scottish artist of marked abiHty began to practise. This was the well-known George Jamesone of Aberdeen, who was born on the 8th of February 1587. Although he cannot in the least degree be compared with the great portrait-masters of the Spanish and the later British schools, it may be noted that he was contemporary with Velasquez and Murillo, and preceded the English Hogarth by fully a century, and Reynolds by a hundred and twenty-six years. He appeared at a time when the wholesale destruction of nearly all kinds of art-work was going on in different parts of Scotland, and was the first of a race of artists who, instead of the antiquated types and the traditions of religion, were to illustrate and perpetuate the portraiture, and subsequently the poetry and history, of their native land. The inherent love of these, so characteristic of the Scot, could not fail in favourable times to develop the art of painting ; and although several generations of artists were necessary before the art could attain its full power of expression in the works of such men as Raeburn, Wilkie, and Duncan, traces of the Scottish national character nearly akin to GEORGE JAMESONE. 75 that of Spain are to be found in the works of several of their predecessors. There are perhaps no other national portraits so similar in handling and expression to those of the great represen- tatives of the Spanish school, so eminent in this branch of art, as those of Scotland; and Raeburn and Watson Gordon may not unworthily be placed alongside of Velasquez and Coello. This similarity so strongly impressed Wilkie when in Spain, that in writing to his friend Nasmyth from Seville, he mentioned heads at Madrid by Velasquez which were so like Raeburn's works that, were they shown in Edinburgh, they would be attributed to the Scottish artist. The early Spanish masters drew 4;heir inspiration from and had the success of they: works gauged by those of the Italian masters ; but in the serious glowing colour and soberness of Velasquez, we see a reflection not of his predecessors' works, but of the national character of the Spaniard. The art in Scotland more rapidly assumed its style, if we count by the number of its professors instead of by years. We search in vain for any evidence that the art of Spain influenced that of Scotland. There was little or no personal intercourse, and whatever com- merce existed was transacted in the exchanges and marts of the great Flemish entrepots^ through which it is difficult to conceive how any Spanish influence could have filtered. Scottish art bears no more resemblance to the sensuality of Rubens, or the severity of the earlier Flemings, than it does to the gorgeousness of Giorgione or Titian, the grace of Raphael, or the energy of Michael Angelo. The first rudiments of execution and power of expression being acquired, the character of the Scottish people soon reflected itself on the art; and the persecutions of the Covenanters as subjects for painting, appealed in their own way as strongly to the sympathies of the people of Scotland as did the sufferings and ecstasies of martyrs and saints to the people of the Peninsula. In the works of Jamesone more than in those of his early successors may be noticed latent traits of the fully developed art of the school of which he is the first representative ; and he forms a curious link between the art of Flanders and of Scotland, 'j6 ART IN SCOTLAND. having studied under Rubens alongside of Vandyke in Antwerp, — a tradition which there is no reason to doubt, as there is very observable influence of Rubens in his portrait of Arthur Johnston at King's College, painted about 1629, as well as one or two others. At a period when it was hardly to be expected, owing to the troubles of the Covenanters and the wars of the great captain, he received a large amount of patronage, more especially from the great Highland chief, Sir Colin Campbell of Glenorchy, a favourite of James VI. and his queen, Anne of Denmark ; and although he does not seem to have been very highly remunerated, even for those days, his price being about twenty-three shillings sterling per portrait, "colours and claith" included, and thirty- four shillings when furnishing the "muUer" or frame, his swift brush and moderate living enabled him to die in considerable affluence. His taste was probably inherited from his father Andrew, who was a burgess of Guild and an architect, as was also his maternal uncle, and was no doubt further cultivated by his residence abroad, however short it may have been. It is well known that he took a pleasure in making the house which he rented in Aberdeen in later years a kind of suburban paradise, similar to the "lust haus" of the Flemish burgher. He is credited as being the first Scottish painter of a Scottish king, having, according to tradition, painted a head of Charles I. from life at Edinburgh in 1633, now un traced. His numerous por- traits of contemporary and deceased personages preserved at Taymouth and elsewhere, in spite of the efl"ects of time and of the scrubbing-brush, which was often applied to pictures with that liberality of muscle possessed by the Scottish domestic, show a tolerable amount of skill, although not of such a quality as to entitle him to the epithet of the Scottish Vandyke, which was bestowed upon him by Walpole. It may not seem so remarkable that there should appear in Scotland at that time the first Scottish — in fact, British — artist who could lay claim to any rank in his profession, when we GEORGE JAMESONE. jj consider the very high position occupied by Aberdeen as a seat of learning, culture, and commerce \ the long and friendly inter- course existing between Scotland and the Continent; and the roving disposition of the Scot. A wave of culture from the more advanced South, where art had already achieved its glories, rippled along the coasts of our island, and our churches had assumed enough of the decorative arts in their adornment, so common on the Continent, to irritate native Puritanism to their destruction. The commerce between Aberdeen and the northern Continental ports, particularly Bruges, perhaps the most artistic and certainly one of the wealthiest cities in Belgium, was then, and at an earlier period, of very considerable magnitude ; and so it came about that the architect's son, with some liking and aptitude for art, found an opportunity for its development, throw- ing into the shade the works of such other British artists as were contemporaneous, or followers in point of time, and surpassing in his adherence to nature some of the foreign artists who were employed at the English Court. How long Jamesone remained at Antwerp is not known, but as he is said to have been a fellow-student with Vandyke under Rubens, and as Vandyke left the great Fleming's studio in 1619, Jamesone must have been about thirty years of age on leaving Aberdeen, previous to which he must have acquired considerable proficiency in his art. Admission to the studio of Rubens was not easily obtained ; he had numerous applicants, and no doubt both ability and influence were necessary for the entrde. It was in the year 1620 that he set up his easel in his native town, and soon afterwards got married to Isabel Tosh; but fame soon in- duced him to move to Edinburgh, and in 1623 he painted the well-known group of himself with his wife and daughter Mary. In addition to portraits and miniatures, he is said to have exe- cuted some historical and landscape pieces. The chief reason for this supposition is the fact that in one of his own portraits he is represented pointing to a number of pictures on a wall, among which are one or two landscapes and a kind of historical yS ART IN SCOTLAND. composition. So far as is known, no specimen in these branches of art has been identified with his name, and one would be sorry to associate it with one or two works of that class which vague and unfounded tradition has attributed to his brush. The book of Scripture drawings which are referred to by Allan Cunningham, and which are mentioned in the painter's will as '* 200 leaves of parchment of excellent write adorned with diverse historys of our Saviour," and of which all traces are lost, was probably the work of some old monkish illuminator, there being nothing in the will to support any other assumption than that it was one of his possessions. We must, therefore, consider Jamesone as a portrait-painter alone, and trust to his reputation being sustained by the numerous portraits scattered throughout the country. On the occasion of the visit of Charles I. to Edinburgh, a fantastic display was got up which cost the city over forty-one thousand pounds Scots : in connection with this the magistrates are said to have solicited from Jamesone the loan of such of his works as could be got together, which, along with some others, were hung up on each side of the Netherbow Port to grace the royal visit. A large part of the details of the artist's life, however, still rests on mere tradition, and of late some idea of this being too undignified a position for the painter's work to occupy, has relegated to him only the superintendence of the display. The portrait of the painter by himself, holding a ring in his hand, lends some plausibility to the story relating how Charles, being attracted by these portraits, gave the artist a sitting and a recompense of a diamond ring. The fact of the painter having repeatedly painted himself with his hat on, is also assigned to the supposed circumstance of the king having per- mitted him to do so while painting, but is much more probably due to the example of the school in which he had some training. He was liberally patronised by the Earl of Mar, who possessed about a dozen of his works before the civil war and forfeiture scattered the possessions of that house, and Aberdeen still pos- sesses numerous specimens, especially at King's College. From GEORGE JAMESONE. 79 the Black Book of Taymouth we learn that for Glenorchy he painted at one time thirteen portraits, consisting of those of Robert and David Bruce, Charles I. and his queen, and nine more Queens of Scotland, for the hall of Balloch (Taymouth), receiving payment in 1635 for these, two hundred and threescore pounds; and also, one hundred and fourscore pounds for nine family portraits, consisting of Sir Colin himself, the Knight of Lochore's lady, the first Countess of Argyll, and six other ladies, for the Chamber of Deas at Balloch.^ This Sir CoHn was a liberal patron of the art, as the same curious register states that in 1633, two years earlier, he "bestowit and gave to ane German painter whom he entertainit in his house aucht month, and that for painting of thretty brods of the Kings of Scotland, and of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, and twa of their Majesty's queens of gude memory, and of the said Sir Colin his awn and his predecessors' portraits, whilk portraits are set up in the hall and chalmer of Deas of the house of Balloch, the soume of ane thousand pounds." The German painter thus seems to have been much better remunerated than Jamesone. If we allow the extra portraits to stand opposite the expense of his keep for the eight months during which he was employed, the thirty *' brods " were paid for by about fifty-five shillings sterling, while Jamesone only received thirty-three shillings each. 2 This modest remunera- tion, however, does not appear so small when we read of Sarah, at a later period, cutting down the price of Sir John Thornhill's 1 Many of the Breadalbane pictures, &c., were removed to Langton House in Berwickshire (within the present century), the property of Lady Elizabeth Pringle, daughter of the first Marquis, and now owned by the Hon. Mr Baillie Hamilton. 2 Writing to Sir CoHn Campbell from Edinburgh in June 1635, Jamesone says: "The pryce quhilk ewerie ane payes me abowe the west [above the waist] is twentie merkis, I furnishing claith and coulleris ; bot iff I furniss ane double-gilt muller [frame], then it is twentie pound is. Thes I deall with all alyk ; bot I am moir bound to hawe ane gryte cair of your worship's service, becaus of very gouid payment for my laist employment. If I begin the picturs in Julii, I will have the sextine redie about the laist of September." Sixteen portraits in three months is rapid work. 80 ART IN SCOTLAND. art to twenty shillings per yard in connection with the decorations of Blenheim House. It is known that Jamesone was working at Balloch while the Black Book of Taymouth was being written, and is thus the sup- posed artist of some rude but curious portraitures of the lairds of Glenorchy, on the blank leaves of vellum at the end of the volume. The earlier of these, representing the ancient heroes of the race, are exceedingly rude, and without the possibility of any resem- blance; but the later lairds are more careful in execution, the last of which, representing Sir Colin, may easily be admitted as the work of Jamesone.^ His portraits consist generally of small head-sizes. Among the exceptions are a good whole-length life-size of James VI., which was possessed by the late B. Graham, Esq. ; and a seated half- length of the Rev. William Guild, D.D., in the Trinity Hall at Aberdeen. The so-called Sibyls which at present decorate a stair- way at King's College are neither weird nor beautiful, as they are sometimes described. If, as has been stated, they are portraits of some of the belles of Aberdeen, these have not been remarkable for their good looks. Among other traditions regarding the artist, there is obscure mention of his having visited Italy in company with Sir Colin Campbell, where he is said to have painted four pictures for the Scots College at Rome, but which possibly rests on as slight a foundation as the often-repeated assertion that his portrait hangs in the Ufizzi gallery at Florence, among those of other distin- guished artists. Regarding the latter assertion, the author has the assurance of Signor Ridolf, inspector of the Florentine galleries, that such a portrait does not now exist in the collection ; and who also states that he is not aware of any documents referring to its removal during the last fifty years.^ Jamesone died in 1644, and was buried in an unrecorded grave ^ Cosmo Innes in Proceedings of Scottish Antiquaries. 2 Communicated by the kindness of Mr. W. H. Wilson, and Mr Colnaghi, Consul at Florence. DESTRUCTION OF ART- WORK. 8 1 in the Greyfriars Churchyard in Edinburgh, having left consider- able legacies to his friends and the poor, which, however, may not all have been the fruits of his labour, as he was well con- nected. His daughter Mary is the reputed seamstress of a mass of tapestry representing Ahasuerus presenting the sceptre to Queen Esther, and Jephtha meeting his daughter, which is still preserved in Old Aberdeen. To a man of his talent, and the catholicity of taste which he could scarcely fail to have imbibed during his residence abroad, it must have appeared curious to see so many of the people of his time, of totally different opinions, anxious to perpetuate their own and their ancestors' likenesses, and at the same time eager to destroy anything in the form of art when applied to the services of religion. While treasuring up such a work as the Scripture history referred to in his will, he saw the destruction of similar but more important works of art going on all round, more especially in his own city of Aberdeen, where the one party made their camp-fires with the furniture and carvings from the vener- able cathedral of St Machar, and the other left their unburied dead in the street,^ In the year 1640, the General Assembly, regarding Machar Kirk in Aberdeen, "ordained our blessed Lord Jesus Christ His arms to be hewen out of the front of the pulpit, and to tak doon the portrait of our blessed Mary and her dear Son baby Jesus in her arms, that had stood since the up-putting thereof, in curious work, under the sill ring at the west end of the pend whereon the great steeple stands ; besides, where there was ane crucifix set in glassen windows, this he [the Master of Forbes] caused pull out in ^ Besides those mentioned, Jamesone has of course left very numerous por- traits, among which may be named Montrose, Rothes, old Leslie, Earl of Leven, Chancellor Loudon, the Marquises of Hamilton and Huntly, Sir Paul Menzies (Provost), Professor Sandilands, Andrew Cant, Urquhart of Cromarty, Gordon of Straloch, Sir Thomas Hope, George Heriot, Richard Baxter, John Earl of Mar, Sir Thomas Nicholson, his uncle David Anderson the architect (known as Davie-do-a'-thing), Alexander Bannerman of Elsick, &c. For de- tailed notes see Mr Bullock's Life of Jamesone. F 82 ART IN SCOTLAND. honest men's houses. He caused ane mason strike out Christ's arms in hewen wark on ilk end of Bishop Gavin Dunbar's tomb, and sidike chisel out the name of Jesus drawn cypher-wise I.H.S. out of the timber wall on the fore side of Machar aile, anent the consistory door ; the crucifix on the old town cross dung doon ; the crucifix on the new town cross closed up, being loath to break the stone; the crucifix on the west end of St Nicholas Kirk in New Aberdeen dung doon, whilk was never troubled before." Suchlike destruction of art-work had continued all over Scot- land for many years. In 1560 a formal letter of instruction was drawn up, issued, and signed by " Ar. Argyle, James Stewart, and Ruthven," a blank being left to be filled up with the name of the kirk to be operated upon, and which runs as follows : " Traist friendis, after maist hearty commendacioun, we pray you faill not to pass incontinent to the kirk of , and tak doun the haill images thereof, and bring furth to the kirk-zayrd, and burn thaym oppinly. And siclyke cast doun the alteris and purge the kirk of all kynd of monuments of idolatrye. And this ye faill not to do, as ye will do us singular empleseur ; and so committis you to the protection of God." A postscript cautions them to "tak guid heid that neither the dasks, windocks, nor durris be ony ways hurt or broken, either glassin wark or iron wark." ^ The Reformers however, as is well known, sometimes did the work more thoroughly, in the manner pithily recommended by Knox, and effected their purpose by loosening the roof of the church undergoing purgation, and so allowing it to fall into the choirs, bringing it to a close by a kind of holocaust, burning the wooden images, altar furniture, pictures, and vestments outside. It is known how the craftsmen of Glasgow assembled by tuck of drum to resist some such in- tention on the cathedral there in 1579, and saved that beautiful edifice from demolition. In 1640 there is mentioned the destruction of what must have been an interesting and valuable piece of art-work at Elgin, accom- ^ Henderson's Annals of Dunfermline, &c. DESTRUCTION OF ART-WORK. 83 panied by some latent superstitious feeling on the part of the people that the zeal of the Covenanters might be carried a little too far. Several gentlemen of the Covenanting party, it is chronicled, acting under the influence of the parish minister, cast down the timber screen in the cathedral, on the west side of which was painted, " in excellent colours, illuminate with stars of bright gold, the crucifixion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This piece was so excellently done that the colours and stars never faded or evanished, but keepit hale and sound as they were at the beginning — notwithstanding this College or Canonry kirk wanted the roof since the Reformation, and no hale window therein to save the same from storm, snow, sleet, nor weet. . . . On the other side of this wall, toward the east, was drawn the Day of Judgement. ... It was said this minister caused bring home to his house the timber thereof, and burn the same for serving his kitchen and other uses ; but ilk night the fire went out wherein it was burnt, and could not be holden in to kindle the morning fire as use is, whereat the servants and others marvelled, and there- upon the minister left off any further." The sweeping nature of the changes contemplated at this period may be understood from a passage in Calderwood,^ in which, referring to the Book of Discipline, we read, "They require that idolatrie, with all the monuments and places of the same, as abbayes, monkries, frieries, nunneries, chap- pels, chantries, cathedrall churches, chanonries, colledges, others than presently are parish kirks, or schools, be utterly over- thrown." Private collections of art-work of a religious nature fared no better. Among many instances occurring of the destruction of such, the following extract is given, illustrative of their con- tents : — " Inventar of popish trinkets gotten in my Lord Traquair's house Anno 1688 : all solemnly burnt at the cross of Peebles. . . . " Agnus Dei of Lamber, w* a picture above and another beneath 1 Edition 1678, p. 26. 84 ART IN SCOTLAND. of the same, in a caise. Another curious picture of Lamber. The Queen of Peace, curiously drawn. Six Httle frames with pictures in them. Five bigger frames of timber w* pictures in them. Eight other Httle frames with pictures. Six very large frames w' pictures," 1 &c. Every visitor to Holyrood Palace notices the long line of portraits in the gallery there of the Kings of Scotland, extending from the mythical period of 330 years B.C., when Fergus I. held the sceptre by virtue of descent from the Irish King Milesius, who reigned a thousand years earlier, making the " twenty-sixth degree inclusively from Noe," till the time of Charles I., and which portraits bear more resemblance to each other in feature and costume than can be accounted for by hereditary descent. They were restored after some of them had been slashed by the sabres of Hawley's troopers on their defeat at Falkirk, and line the walls of the great hall, " familiar to readers of ' Waverley ' as the scene of the ball given by the young Pretender during his occu- pation of Holyrood, and still dignified by the levees held by the Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and the meetings for the elections of the Representa- tive Peers of Scotland." Popular tradition for some time attributed them to Jamesone, painted from descriptions by the old Scottish historian ; but the possession of whatever merit the most lenient observer can discover must be attributed to a foreign artist. From the still existing contract, they are known to be the works of James de Witt, a Fleming, who was engaged by the Duke of York, and in February 1684 contracted with the Government to paint no portraits within two years for ;£24o sterling, he supplying the colours and the canvas, the Government on their part supplying the originals from which he was to copy. This James de Witt, or Jacob de Wett as he is sometimes called, must have been a kind of genius in his way, as he designed the national arms over the main entrance to the palace, as 1 Proceedings of Scottish Antiquaries, vol. ii. p. 455. EARLY TOPOGRAPHERS. 8$ well as the blazon in the quadrangle ; and the accounts of Sir William Bruce, the architect employed by Charles on the palace, show entries of 7th February 1674: "Payed to Jacob de Wett, Dutch painter, ;^98, 12 shs^- (Scots) for two several chimney- pieces painted by him, and for painting in marble ane chimney ; " and on July 31, 1675, "Payed to Mr de Wett, paynter, 120 pounds Scots for ane piece of historie, painted and placed in the roofe of the King's bed-chamber, in the second storie to the east quarter, on the syde towards the Privie Garden." The same artist also received considerable employment as a portrait-painter — more particularly at Lyon Castle, Glammis, and Clerkington in East Lothian. He was dismissed from the public service in 1688, it is said without complete payment being made for his works, and died in Scotland. Early topographical drawing, which may have had some in- fluence in developing the art of landscape-painting, deserves some notice. So early as the year 1544, a bird's-eye map-view of Edinburgh from Calton Hill was drawn by Alexander Alesse (Ales, or Hailes). He was born in Edinburgh on the 23d April 1500. Having embraced the Protestant faith about the time when Patrick Hamilton, the first Scottish martyr, rendered up his life at the stake in 1527, he left Scotland in order to avoid a similar fate, dying at Leipzig in his sixty-fifth year. The original, which is assigned to the date of the Earl of Hertford's expedition in the reign of Henry VIIL, is preserved in the British Museum, and shows the prominent then existing buildings. Besides some theological works, he wrote a description in Latin of Edinburgh, in which he speaks of "boundless streets, which are all orna- mented with lofty houses, such as the Cowgate, in which reside the nobles and senators of the city, and in which are the principal palaces of the kingdom, where nothing is humble or homely, but all is magnificent." About a century later, in 1647, the common council ordered the sum of 500 marks to be paid to the well-known minister of Rothiemay, James Gordon, for making another view of the same S6 ART IN SCOTLAND. city, which is said to be accurate and reHable ; it was engraved on a large scale by De Witt at Amsterdam.^ Robert Gordon of Straloch, born at Kinmundy in Aberdeen- shire in 1580, was the second son of Sir John Gordon of Pitlurg, who stood in high favour with his sovereign, James VI. He was the first, it is said, who applied actual measurement in topogra- phical surveys; and at the solicitation of King Charles in 1641, undertook the preparation of an atlas of Scotland, published in 1648 : this work afterwards passed through a second and third edition. His fifth son, the James above referred to, was the author of a * History of Scots Affairs from 1637 to 1641,' and also of a * Description of both Towns of Aberdeen, with a Map.' Regarding this map, which he presented to the town council in 1661, it is chronicled "that he had been at great pains in draughting it upon ane mickle cairt of paper ; " in consideration of which they ordained him to receive " ane silver piece or cup, wechtand twenty unce, and ane silk hat, with ane silk gown to his bed-fellow." ^ The important ' Geographiae Blavianae,' pub- lished at Amsterdam in 1642, in the introduction to the Scottish volume, recognises the labours of Scotstarvet and the Gordons — Joanni Scoto Scoto-Tarvatio, Jacobus Gordonius, and Robertus Gordonius a Straloch, whose names appear prominently on several of the maps. In the early seventeenth century the art of architecture in its modern form began to develop itself in Scotland. England lagged behind the Continent, and Scotland was still later. It is probable that classic architecture was first introduced into England by Giovanni di Padua, and Have (or Havenius of Cleves), late in in the sixteenth century.^ Inigo Jones (1572-1652) was followed by Wren (1632-1723), and it is probably to the works of these eminent artists that the taste for classic art had its origin in Scotland. ^ Dr Wilson — who mentions that it was reproduced in London, and also in volume xii. of Pierre Van der Aa's Galerie Agreable du Monde. 2 Smith's History of Aberdeenshire (1875), P^^t II. ^ Ferguson. WILLIAM SCHAW. 2>y In the very dawn of the seventeenth century, on the i8th April 1602, died WilHam Schaw, architect to James VI. (or as he was then styled, Master of the King's Works), and also president of the Sacred Ceremonies and Queen's Chamberlain. One of his predecessors, Sir Robert Drummond, has already been mentioned in connection with the restoration of the Chapel Royal at Stirling. A brother of Sir Thomas Galbraith, the musician of James IV., held the office of King's Master of Works at Dumbar- ton ; and John Murdo, or Morow, was probably of no earlier date. Schaw is notable for having, about the year 1594, restored the abbey of Dunfermline, of which he is said to have built the steeple, the north porch, some of the buttresses, the roofs of the north and the south aisles, and the portion of the gable above the great western door ; he is also credited with the erection of the queen's house, and the bailie and constabulary houses. His monument was placed originally over his grave in the north aisle of the nave which he restored, but was removed in 1794, and part of it placed within the " bell-ringer's place at the bottom of the steeple." A long Latin inscription on his tomb includes the in- formation that he was " a man of excellent skill, notable probity, singular integrity of life, adorned with the greatest of virtues, . . . Master of the King's Works, President of the Sacred Ceremonies, and the Queen's Chamberlain. . . . Among the living he dwelt 52 years : he had travelled in France and many other kingdoms for the improvement of his mind ; he wanted no liberal training ; was most skilful in architecture; was early recommended to great persons for the singular gifts of his mind ; and was not only un- wearied and indefatigable in labours and business, but constantly active and most vigorous, and was most dear to every good man who knew him. . . . Queen Anne ordered this monument to be erected to the memory of this most excellent and most upright man, lest his virtues should pass away with the death of his body." ^ David Anderson of Finzeauch, a native of Aberdeen, uncle of Jamesone the painter, known as " Davie-do-a'-thing," had some ^ Henderson's Annals of Dunfermline. 8S ART IN SCOTLAND. reputation as an architect. He was dean of guild of Aberdeen, for which city he seems to have acted as city architect, designing a steeple for St Nicholas's Church, and improving the harbour. His contemporary, Gordon of Straloch, refers to his skill in mechanics, and his renown in art and industry is also mentioned in the 'Succinct Survey.' He died in 1629. After the death of Schaw lived John Mylne, one of a family which had long enjoyed the principal employment in this depart- ment of art in Scotland, several of his predecessors having held the office of master-mason to the king. He was several times deacon convener of the trades, commissioner to Parliament for the city of Edinburgh, and was buried in the Greyfriars Church- yard of Edinburgh in 1667, at the age of fifty-six, where a long Latin inscription records his many virtues and talents. Alexander Mylne, a sculptor of some repute, was probably a brother of John ; he died in 1643, ^"^ ^'^s buried in the cemetery attached to Holyrood House, where, on the site of the ancient choir of the chapel, a monument with the usual Latin verses informs the " pas- senger " — ' ' Here is buried a worthy man and an ingenious mason, Alexander Milne, 20th February a.d. 1643 ; " to which is added the further information — " What Myron or Appelles could have done In brass or paintry, he could that in stone ; But thretty years he lived. ..." Still another Mylne, or Milne, is commemorated in connection with Holyrood as one of the builders of the palace, by an in- scription on a pillar of the piazza of the quadrangle, " FVN . BE . RO . MILNE .M.M.I. JVL. 1671," in which the initials M . M . represent the words Master Mason. The greatest representative of this family, however, was the later Robert Mylne (born 4th January 1734; died 5th May 181 1), a native of Edinburgh, where his father was a magistrate. He was educated in his native city, and studied five years at Rome, where, on the i8th September I MYLNE — SIR W. BRUCE. 89 1758, he was awarded the first prize in the Academy of St Luke in the first class of architecture. In the following year he was elected a member of the Academy, but being a Protestant, a dis- pensation from the Pope was necessary, which was obtained for him by the young Prince Altieri, who was distinguished in Rome for his knowledge of art. During his residence in Italy he care- fully studied the remains of ancient architecture, and on his return to London a friendless adventurer, became one of twenty-one candidates for the contemplated Blackfriars Bridge, commenced in 1 76 1. For the plan and duty of superintendence of this he was rewarded by a salary of ;^3oo per annum and five per cent on the cost. The bridge was completed in 1765 for the exact estimated sum of ;^i 53,000. In the erection of this his mode of " centering " was much praised. He seems, during its progress, to have made a second visit to Rome, as Mrs Strange, writing to her brother, mentions him in a letter of February 1763, as "hav- ing lived here in the Land of Goshen for three years, is to set out in a few days for the Land of Cakes." He was afterwards ap- pointed surveyor of St Paul's, and originated the famous inscrip- tion there to Wren, "Si monumentum requiris — circumspice." Among other buildings which he erected or altered were Roches- ter Cathedral, Greenwich Hospital (of which he was clerk for fifteen years). King's Weston, Ardencaple House, and Inveraray Castle. He was interred near to the tomb of Wren in Westmin- ster Abbey after a distinguished career, and left five surviving children by his wife Mary Home, whom he married in 1770. Sir William Bruce, baronet of Kinross (previously of Balcaskie), the second son of Robert, third Baron of Blairhill, was trained abroad as an architect, and was an enthusiastic and active pro- moter of the restoration of Charles II. During his residence on the Continent he gained the intimacy of General Monk, and con- veyed secretly to Breda the information of that officer's efforts in the royal cause — a service which Charles, after his restoration, re- warded by constituting him Clerk to the Bills in the Court of Session, at that time a lucrative office, and afterwards in 1668 90 ART IN SCOTLAND. created him a baronet, at the same time appointing him Surveyor- General of Public Buildings. The king having early resolved to rebuild part of the palace of Holyrood, now employed him to prepare the necessary designs, and in 167 1 a royal warrant was issued from Windsor, by which the Commissioners of Exchequer were empowered to allow him to proceed with the restoration of the palace. The king took a great personal interest in the execu- tion of the work, suggesting modifications and alterations, some of which fortunately were not adopted. Sir William had designed the interior of the quadrangle to be richly decorated, but this was not carried out on account of the expense. The portion of the palace thus rebuilt was completed after eight years, in 1679, at a cost of about ;^T 28,000 Scots. He also planned Hopetoun House in Linlithgowshire, in which the internal accommodation, although very extensive, has been somewhat sacrificed for an im- posing fagade : it was commenced in 1698, but not completed till several years had elapsed, the elder Adam having added the wings. ^ He designed Moncreifie House in Perthshire, the Mer- chants' House and steeple in Glasgow, and had a hand in Heriot's Hospital. In the Heriot Hospital Record for 1675, May 3d, it is stated, " There is a necessity that the steeple of the Hospital be finished, and a top put thereupon. Ro. Milne, master-mason, to think on a drawing thereof against the next council meeting." This was evidently not done by Milne, as on July loth next year it is stated, '* Deacon Sandilans to put a roof and top to the Hospital's steeple, according to the draught condescended upon be Sir William Bruce." He died in 17 10, and the Scottish National Gallery possesses a small portrait-head of him, executed in China ink. The few works to which this architect's name is attached is due to the fact that he may be said to have practised the art as an amateur, only so far as was consistent with the dignity of a private gentleman, and which he was enabled to sustain from the lucrative offices to which he had been appointed. ^ A plan is given in Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus : it is nearly square, with the staircase in the centre. WILLIAM AYTOUN. 9 1 In connection with Heriot's Hospital, the name of William Wallace, master - mason, is associated at the commencement of that building. He was very probably the architect, as he had under him an Andrew Donaldson, who seems in reality to have been the master - mason. William Aytoun seems to have suc- ceeded Wallace in the same work ; and connected with the design- ing of Innes House in Morayshire, an entry occurs in the account- book of the laird of Innes, " Given to Wm. Aitoun, maister mais- soun at Heriott his work, for drawing the form of the house on paper, ;£"26, 13s. 4d." Scots, or £^2^ 4s. 6d. sterling. A curious portrait of Aytoun is preserved in the Hospital.^ He was a native of Inchdairnie, and ancestor of the poet W. E. Aytoun. The earlier domestic edifices of Scotland, as already said, were imita- tions of those of France, so far as the limited means of the Scottish laird permitted. Bruce no doubt designed Holyrood from his observations on the Continent; but of the early experience of Wallace and Aytoun, whose names are associated with Heriot's Hospital, nothing seems to be known. The latter edifice is a curious example of a not disagreeable mixture of very different styles, consisting of the framework of a German palace, with the turrets and chimneys of a French chateau, having its prototype in the castle of Fredericksburg. ^ Billings's Antiquities. 92 CHAPTER VI. Late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries — John Scoiigal — Corrtides — Htide — Paton — Wait — Sir John Medina — John Medina — Tho?nas Murray — William Ferguson — J. Michael Wright — Office of Kings Liviner — John Alexander — William Aikman — Johti Sinibert — The Norries — Milton House decorations — Academy of St Luke in Edinburgh — Richard Cooper the engraver. In the latter part of the seventeeth century, one of the resorts of the fashion and beauty of Edinburgh was on the east side of the Advocates' Close, where John Scougal the painter rented or owned a house, to which he had added an upper storey arranged as a studio. He was of a respectable family, being cousin to Patrick Scougal, consecrated Bishop of Aberdeen in 1664, whose son, the Professor of Divinity there, was spoken of as sometimes loving God and sometimes loving women. Scougal had a very extensive practice, which latterly led him into a hasty style of work, said to be observable in the portrait of George Heriot, which he copied in 1698 from the now lost original by Paul van Somer. He has left a portrait of Sir Archibald Primrose, Lord Clerk Register, in the possession of Lord Rosebery, dated 1670, and two of the ancestors of the Clerks of Penicuik, four years later. Several of his works were in the possession of Andrew Bell the engraver, who married Scougal' s granddaughter, and who died within the present century ; in Leith, wherein he is said to have been bom, are several of his works of an inferior quality ; and in the Glasgow Collection are three full-lengths, removed from the old Town Hall, consisting of William III., Queen Mary, and Queen Anne. JOHN SCOUGAL. 93 Of these, the Queen Mary is by far the best — well drawn, good in colour, and suggestive of the influence of Vandyke's work. From the Glasgow Town Council minutes of 12th March 1708, it is ascertained that the purchase by the Provost of the William and Mary from "Mr Scougal, limner in Edinburgh," for ^£'27 sterling, was approved of, and the money ordered to be paid by the treasurer for transmission to the artist. Payment for the Queen Anne was ordered to be made on the 2d August 171 2, to " John Scougall, elder, painter, fifteen pounds sterling." ^ He died at Prestonpans about the year 1730, after witnessing some of the most important changes which ever occurred within the history of his country, having lived to the mature age of eighty-five years.^ His name has been sometimes mentioned erroneously as George,^ and another painter of the same name is the credited author of his own portrait in the Scottish National Gallery, a careful, brown Vandyke-looking head, in which the artist, spoken of as the " elder" Scougal, is represented in a high collar of Charles I. period, and holding in his hand a ring, said to have been the re- compense bestowed on him by James VI. for painting a portrait of Prince Henry. As any other traces of an " elder" Scougal are unknown, and this portrait was presented by a descendant, John Scougal of Leith, it is not unreasonable to suppose that it is a fancy portrait of the same artist, to whose work it bears a toler- able resemblance. This supposition, that there was only one artist of the name, is readily borne out by the long life enjoyed by the artist, the error in name referred to, and the fact that one of the Glasgow payments was made so late as 1 712 to "John Scougall, elder, painter." To assume otherwise, there is only the evidence of a vague tradition unsupported by fact, and the existence of the inferior portraits at Leith bearing the same name. It is evident from the Glasgow Council minute that he had a son of the same name, but it by no means follows that because he was called elder or senior in money transactions, the son also was an artist. 1 Mr Paton's Catalogue. ^ Dr Wilson's Memorials of Edinburgh. ^ Probably for the first time in the Weekly Magazine, vol. xv. 94 ART IN SCOTLAND. Practising about the same time as Scougal, was Corrudes, a foreign painter of portraits, of whom even still less is known, and after him, Nicholas Hude. The latter is usually considered to have been a French artist, as he was formerly one of the directors of the French Academy, obliged to leave France on the repeal of the Edict of Nantes.^ After his arrival in London, about 1685, where he remained several years unemployed, William, Duke of Queensberry, brought him to Scotland to do work for him at Drumlanrig Castle. He is said to have been a not unsuccessful imitator of Rubens, and although more inclining to historical painting, was for a livelihood compelled to paint portraits. Two native artists of about this period have left little more than their names and a few obscure works. These were Paton, who painted several portraits in oil, but better known by his copies and miniatures, and black-and-white drawings, which were said to possess a good deal of likeness and expression. The other was Richard Wait, an assistant of Scougal, who painted portraits between 1708 and 17 15, and also some pieces of still life.^ He practised in Edinburgh, and there formerly existed at Newhall House a whole-length portrait of the Old Pretender in the archers' uniform, dated 17 15, by him.^ By far, however, the most fashionable artist in Scotland at the close of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, was Juan Bautiste Medina, better known as Sir John Medina, having the distinction of being the last knight created prior to the Union, which honour was conferred on him by the hand of the Lord High Commissioner Queensberry. The very numerous portraits which he has left us is proof that he pursued a very successful career; while the quality of his work, although hard and often weak in drawing, entitles him to the not inappropriate designation of the Kneller of the North, which is sometimes ^ Hude is the old Scottish form of spelling Hood. In the Reformation period, statutes were directed against the exhibition of Robert Hude (Robin Hood) and the Abbot of Unreason. 2 The Bee. =* Introduction to Gentle Shepherd, 1808. SIR JOHN MEDINA. 95 bestowed on him. His father, a Spanish captain from the Asturias, had settled in Brussels, where Juan was born in 1659, and received his art education from Duchatel. He married a Flemish wife named Joan Mary Vandael, and came over to London, where he remained about two years practising portrait- painting in the short reign of James II. David, Earl of Leven, having procured for him promises of portraits to the amount of ;^5oo, induced him to come to Scotland at the close of James's reign, bringing with him, according to Walpole, a number of bodies of figures already painted, to which he added heads as sitters offered. The last statement must, however, be received with some caution. He remained almost entirely in Scotland till his death in 17 10, and was buried in Greyfriars Church- yard in Edinburgh, leaving property to the value of ;£i3,i3o, 1 6s. and 8d., equal to about ;£"iioo sterling. During these twenty-one or twenty-two years, it is said he painted about half the nobility of Scotland, as well as many of the eminent men of his time. The residence of the Earls of Leven contains about twenty of his portraits, including one of the first Earl of Melville, State Secretary for Scotland. " Of the beauties of the family, for whose fair heads Medina had the honour of finding bodies," says the accomplished author of the 'Annals of the Artists of Spain,' who was connected by marriage with the Melville family, " the most pleasing are a pretty Lady Balgonie of the house of North-esk, and the lovely Margaret Nairne, wife of Lord Strathallan, slain at Culloden, and herself imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle for her Jacobite loyalty. The first Duke of Argyll was also one of his patrons ; and he painted a large and excellent picture of that nobleman and his two sons, both Dukes in their turn — John, who claimed the victory of Sheriffmuir, and lives in the lines of Pope and the romance of Scott, and Archi- bald, better known as Lord Hay, Walpole's viceroy beyond the Tweed. The Highland heads of these chieftains Medina fitted upon Roman bodies; and he represented the sire in boots of lustrous brass, giving a laurel wreath to his eldest boy, thus g6 ART IN SCOTLAND. vindicating his claims to the national faculty of second-sight, as he stands pictured among his ancestors at Inveraray. He also painted a large family group for the gay Gordon, who held out Edinburgh for James II., and numerous other portraits throughout the mansions of the Scottish nobility." ^ Medina's practice was by no means confined to portrait-paint- ing, and mention occurs of several of his works of various kinds in some collections which were formed in his time. At Amisfield in Haddington, the property of the Earl of Wemyss, in a list of a hundred and thirty-three pictures, mostly by the old masters, and fifteen family portraits,^ in 1792, were six works bearing his name ; the largest were a St Jerome, and Apelles and Campaspe, fully four feet square, the others being two children, landscape with figures, &c. At Newhall House, which in 1703 was sold to the eminent lawyer Sir David Forbes, brother to Duncan Forbes of Culloden, were five pictures, consisting of a Venus chastising Cupid, Diana and Endymion, two upright landscapes with figures, and a man drinking by candlelight.^ With regard to his prices, it was found at his death that his highest-priced portrait was that of the Countess of Crawford and her son, at ;£'io sterling; his lowest being ^^, for a copy of his own work. It would be curious to know if this artist was a descendant or relation of the Jan Gomez de Medina, captain of twenty hulks of the Spanish Armada, whose ship was wrecked off the north coast of Scotland, and who sought shelter and protection from James Melville, the minister of Anstruther. The grave old sea-captain afterwards, we are told, possessed a warm heart to Scotland. John Medina, a son of the knight, also followed the art, and seems to have been mostly occupied in painting portraits of Queen Mary, and spending the proceeds with other gay young bloods in the then popular oyster-cellars of Edinburgh. In a poetical epistle ^ Stirling's Annals of the Artists of Spain. 2 Transactions of Scottish Antiquaries, 1792. 3 Preface to Gentle Shepherd, 1808. THOMAS MURRAY. 97 written by David Hume in 1746-47, the painter is invited to draw the picture of some unknown individual, accompanied with grotesque attributes. It begins — *' Now dear Medina, honest John, Since all your former friends are gone. And even Macgibbon's ^ turned a saint, You now perhaps have time to paint. Draw me a little lively knight, And place the figure full in sight, "With mien erect, and sprightly air, To win the great, and catch the fair." The last stanza concludes thus — " No more obliged, for twenty groats. To draw the Duke, or Queen of Scots ; Your name shall rise, prophetic fame says, Above your Mercers,^ or your Ramsays ; Even I, in literary story. Perhaps shall have my share of glory." ^ Still another John Medina seems to have practised painting, whom Sir Wm. Stirling-Maxwell assumes as a grandson of the first, and who is only known by the fact that he exhibited in the Royal Academy in London in 1772 and 1773. Both of these are said to have been inferior artists. It is somewhat remarkable that while some foreign artists were tempted to settle and practise their art in Scotland at this period, several Scottish painters sought employment for their talents abroad, not unsuccessfully. Among the earliest of these was Thomas Murray (1666-1724), whose portrait hangs among those of the other artists at Florence, and which has been engraved in the Museo Florentino. He was remarkable for his personal beauty, it is said, and for the elegance of his manner, and died what may be considered rich for an artist, owing to success in his profession. He studied under and assisted John Riley, painter to William and ^ A dissipated musical composer. 2 Mercier, a painter who did portraits, among others, of Lord Adam Gordon, the Duchess of Gordon, Hon. Mrs Wemyss, &c., at Amisfield. ^ Hume's Life, 1846. G 98 ART IN SCOTLAND. Mary, and was subsequently largely employed by the nobility and the royal family. His practice was exclusively confined to portraits — that of Dr Halley at the Royal Society, and one of Wycherley possessed by the Earl of Halifax, being mentioned by Walpole. As was naturally to be expected, his style partakes little of that of his predecessors in Scotland, or of the subsequent painters of the Scottish school. Almost contemporaneous with Murray, rather earlier, occurs the name of William (G. ?) Ferguson, of whom little is known beyond a few facts and dates. He was a good artist for his time, fond of painting subjects allied to still-life, although he sometimes ven- tured on out-of-door scenes, an example of which is in the Scottish National Gallery. This consists of classic ruins in strong light and shade, generally well though unequally painted, with some peasants in the foreground of no great merit. Two groups by him still form part of the collection at Newhall House, and consist of partridges and other small birds. He is supposed to have acquired the rudiments of his art in Scotland, but early went to the Conti- nent, where he lived so long, chiefly in Italy, that he has left little more than a reputation in the country of his birth. He is under- stood to have died in London about 1690.^ The name of a Scottish artist of the seventeenth century occurs in the English annals of art — J. Michael Wright — who is almost unknown in the country of his birth. He is said to have received some instruction from George Jamesone, and migrated to London when about the age of sixteen or seventeen, where he seems to have very rapidly risen into prominence. Although he is rather slightingly mentioned by Pepys, he was a painter of very consid- erable ability. The date of his birth is not known : it has been assigned to about 1655,2 but this is evidently too late a date, as he painted in 1672 a whole-length portrait of the cavaliering Prince Rupert, wigged and armoured ; on the back of which, in addition to the Prince's titles, he inscribed, "Jo. Michael Wright, Lond., Pictor Regius, pinxit 1672." In the same year he painted ' The Scot Abroad, &c. ^ Redgraves' Century of Painters. J. MICHAEL WRIGHT. 99 another full-length of Sir Edward Turner, Speaker of the House of Commons and Chief Baron, which he inscribed " Jos. Michael Wright, Anglus 1672 "; and about the same time some Guildhall portraits of judges, on which Scotus is written after his name. It is said that the commissions for the latter came to him on account of Sir Peter Lely declining to paint the judges in their own chambers, and for these he received sixty pounds each. Subse- quently he painted other full-lengths, notably a Highland laird and an Irish Tory, of which replicas were made. Windsor formerly contained (possibly still does) a large full-length picture in which John Lacy, the celebrated comedian, is represented in three char- acters—as Parson Scruple in the " Cheats," Sandy in the " Taming of the Shrew," and Monsieur de Vice in the "Country Captain." This was painted in 1675, ^^^ the Redgraves refer to it as being a fine work, imitatively painted and low in tone, the figures being simply and well grouped. ^ He is also known as the painter of two portraits of a Duke of Cambridge, probably the two sons of King James, who each bore that title. As steward of the house- hold to Lord Castlemaine, he accompanied an embassy to the Pope, probably on account of being able to speak Italian, having been in Italy before. An inflated account of this mission was published both in Italian and English by the painter on his return to London. He is mentioned by Orlandi as "Michaele Rita Inglese, Notato del Catalogo degH Academici di Roma, nel anno 1688," at which city he left a son, a master of languages, and where also he educated a nephew in his own art, which he success- fully practised in Ireland. He was a purchaser at the sale of the pictures of Charles L, and possessed a collection of gems and coins, which were purchased after his death by Sir Hans Sloane, and deposited in that gentleman's museum of antiquities. Wright, on his return from the Roman embassy, was annoyed to find his practice in his absence engrossed by the fashionable Sir Godfrey Kneller; and in 1700 solicited from the king the then vacant appointment of King's Limner in Scotland, encouraged no doubt, ^ Century of Painters (London, 1866). lOO ART IN SCOTLAND. in addition to his artistic position, by having executed the painting on the ceiling of the royal bed-chamber at Whitehall. The royal commission, however, was bestowed upon a shopkeeper, whose name and claims are probably not worth searching out.^ As already mentioned, Arnold Bronkhorst was the first ap- pointed to this office in 1580, and in the reign of Charles II. it seems to have been held by David de Grange, a miniature-painter, who in 1 67 1 petitioned that monarch for "76 li. due for work done in Scotland for his Majesty." In his petition, which was referred to the Lords of the Treasury, who took no notice of it, the limner mentions having received from the king 40s. when he lay ill at St Johnston's, and afterwards 4 li. from Sir Daniel Car- michael, the deputy treasurer. In urging his suit he mentions " the pressing necessities of himself and miserable children ; his sight and labour failing him in his old age, whereby he is forced to rely on the charity of well-disposed persons." A schedule delivered in 1651, during the royal residence at St Johnston's in Scotland, accompanied the petition. ^ In a list of placemen in the columns of a contemporaneous magazine, the name of James Abercromby appears as " Captain of Foot, King's Painter in Scot- land, M.P. for Banffshire, and Deputy Governor of Stirling Castle; drawing six hundred pounds per annum in 1739."^ The duties sometimes required of an artist under royal patronage in these times are curious and difficult to define. The office of sergeant painter, which was held by several eminent artists at the English Court, was filled by John de Critz, who, in the reign of James I. and Charles I., not only had to paint royal portraits for trans- mission to foreign potentates, but had also to gild weathercocks, and paint and gild his Majesty's barge.^ This office, however, was inferior to that of king's limner, which was one of very considerable value to the recipient at that time, although it has 1 Walpole. 2 Unedited Notices of the Arts, by Alfred Beaver in the Art Journal. ' Scots Magazine. ^ Unedited Notices of the Arts, by Alfred Beaver. king's limner— J. ALEXANDER. lOI now become a mere formal and complimentary appointment. When Nicholas Hilliard, the English miniaturist, after the death of Queen Elizabeth, enjoyed the still greater favour of her suc- cessor, this well-beloved servant received a patent in which this "our principal drawer of small portraits and embosser of our medals in gold " had granted unto him a special licence for twelve years, during which time no one was permitted to " invent, make, grave, and imprint any pictures of our image or our royal family . . . without his licence obtained ; " which of course was of great value, as he engraved many plates with the heads of the king and those of members of the royal family : impressions of these he sold, as well as licences for others to do likewise. That there was also a salary accompanying the office at times, there is instance in the appointment of Daniel Mytens, who, as his Majesty's picturerto James VI. and Charles, painted many of the Scottish nobility, the latter monarch having given and granted to the " said Daniel Mittens the office or place of one of our picture drawers of our chamber in ordinary, ... to have, houlde, occupy and enjoy, ... for and during his naturall life," with the " yearlie fee and allowance of twentie pounds of lawfuU money of Englande by the yeare, ... at the foure usuall feasts of the yeare, . . . together with all and all manner of other fees, profitts, advantages, rights, liberties, commodities, and emoluments whatsoever to the said office or place belonginge or of righte appertayneing ; " an office which that artist, how- ever, only held till supplanted by Vandyke, although not losing the royal favour otherwise. Another artist falls to be mentioned, John Alexander (born 1690, died 1760), of somewhat later date, and of whom some little uncertainty has existed, especially as to the date of his birth. He was a descendant of George Jamesone, and the most probable authority puts him down as the grandson of that eminent artist, the son of Jamesone's (natural ?) daughter Mary, who was thrice married. Different authors, including Pinkerton, Chambers, and Walpole-Dallaway, mention three different names and conflicting I02 ART IN SCOTLAND. degrees of relationship. The first of these speaks of " Alexander, the scholar of Jamesone, who married that artist's daughter, and Cosmo Alexander, who engraved a portrait of Jamesone, his great- grandfather, in 1728," and regrets the absence of more information regarding the elder Alexander as unknown to Walpole. Cham- bers refers to the same portrait engraving in the anecdotes as by " Alexander Jamesone, a descendant of the painter ; " to another descendant of the same name — an engraver in the early part of the eighteenth century; and also to a John Alexander, still another descendant, who returned from his studies in Italy in 1720, and became a painter of portraits of Mary Queen of Scots. Dallaway, differing from these, referring to Jamesone, speaks of " Alexander his scholar, and who married his daughter;" and also of " John Alexander, a lineal descendant from Jamisone, who was educated in Italy, and upon his return to Scotland painted several historical pictures at Gordon Castle, and delighted to copy (or invent) portraits of Mary Queen of Scots." By putting the various dates in order, facts point only to one artist of that name and the relationship already mentioned. Jamesone was married before 1623, prior to which his natural daughter may or may not have been born. John Alexander in 17 18 was known to have been practising the arts of engraving and painting in Italy, being among the earliest of the Scottish artists who went abroad for that purpose, and spent a considerable portion of his time at the Court of Cosmo de Medici at Florence, to whom he dedicated a series of six etched engravings from the old masters, of not very high excellence. On his return to Scotland he enjoyed a con- siderable reputation as a portrait-painter, and was employed at Gordon Castle by the duchess, who was daughter to the Earl of Peterborough : a letter was printed in 1721 describing a staircase there painted with the Rape of Proserpine by Mr John Alex- ander. The engraved portrait of Jamesone in Walpole's 'Anec- dotes' appeared originally in 1728, the inscription on which, "George Jameson, Pinxit anno 1623; Alexr. pronepos fecit Aqua forte a.d. 1728," has given rise to the idea that "Alexr." J. ALEXANDER — W. AIRMAN. 103 was the Christian name only of the engraver ;i and in the following year, 1729, "John Alexander" appears in the list of members of the short-lived Academy of St Luke in Edinburgh. Some years later he is known to have been in practice in Edin- burgh, as James Ferguson the astronomer, prior to 1738, took a letter of introduction " from the Lord Pitsligo to Mr John Alex- ander, a painter in Edinburgh, who allowed me to pass an hour every day at his house to copy from his drawings," with the view to becoming an artist. His death has been put down approxi- mately at 1760, one of his latest works being a portrait of George Murdoch, signed "Alexander Pingebat, 1757." As to the Chris- tian name Cosmo, it is likely to have been adopted or given to him on his return from the Court of Duke Cosmo, much in the same way as we speak of Chinese Gordon. On as slight a foun- dation as this cognomen rests, another Alexander might be added to the list, as one catalogue contains his Christian name as Pingebat. There are four of Alexander's portraits in the Trinity Hall of Aberdeen, consisting of the Rev. J. Osborn (17 16-1748), Rev. John Moir, Thomas Mitchell (Provost from 1698 till 1704), and Mrs Jane Mercer or Mitchell, supposed to have been painted about 1737. It is said that at the latter end of his life he commenced a picture of the escape of Queen Mary from Lochleven Castle, which he did not live to finish. His portraits are no doubt very numerous, but they are mainly of interest as marking an era in the history of Scottish art. To this painter's brush, in emulation with that of the younger Medina, we owe many of the genuine and authentic portraits of Queen Mary, who has probably suffered more from the pencils of the artists than from the axe of the executioner. The most important Scottish painter whose life began in the ^ The scarce print of the painter with his wife and child, inscribed fully "Georgius Jameson Scotus Abredonensio Patriae Suas Apelles, eiusque uxor Isabella Tosh et Filius. Geo. Jameson Pinxit Anno 1623 ; Alexr. pronepos fecit Aqua forte, A.D. 1728." 104 ART IN SCOTLAND. seventeenth century was William Aikman, whose talents and virtues were celebrated by more than one distinguished poet. He was a native of Forfarshire, the son of William Aikman of Cairney, who married Margaret, third sister of the first Sir John Clerk of Penicuik. He was thus nephew to Sir John Clerk and Sir David Forbes of Newhall, and cousin to Baron Clerk and Mr Forbes. It was through this connection that the poet Ramsay was introduced to his friendship in Edinburgh. His patron, while attending his duties in Parliament, introduced Thomson to his attention in London, and through the latter he became acquainted with Mallet. On the death of his father he became at an early age laird of the ancestral estate of Cairney near Arbroath, where he was born on the 24th October 1682. Having early developed a strong love for the poetry of his native land, and being also possessed by a strong desire to cultivate the study of the sister art of painting, on reaching the age of twenty-four he sold off the paternal estate in order that he might have the means of carrying out his desire. His father, with a view to his son following his own profession, had given him a good education; but young William no sooner found himself master of his own actions, and with a pocket full of money, than he set out for Rome in 1707 to pursue the study of art, which it is said he had already begun under Sir John Medina. The proceeds of the broad acres of Cairney enabled him to study under the best Roman artists for about three years, when he made a visit to Constantinople and Syria, and after further improving himself in Italy, returned to his native country in 171 2. He settled down in Edinburgh for ten or eleven years, in the course of which he married Marion, daughter of Mr Lawson the publisher, of Cairnsmuir, by whom he had an only son John, who died in early youth. His abilities were soon recognised, and, with his family connections, led to his intimacy with many of the notabilities of Edinburgh — such as Ramsay and John Duke of Argyll. Although he succeeded to the practice of Sir John Medina, he did not find the employment WILLIAM AIKMAN. IO5 of a sufficiently remunerative kind, and on the advice of the Duke of Argyll, removed to London in 1723, where he soon found his way into the brilliant circle then breaking up, which gave lustre to the reign of Queen Anne. Among his associates in London were Swift, Pope, Gay, Arbuthnot, the Earl of Burlington, of architectural taste, and Sir Robert Walpole (to whom among others he introduced the poet of the ' Seasons,' who had come to London a literary adventurer). Among others was Sir Godfrey Kneller, of similar taste and disposition to himself, to whose works Aikman's bear a strong resemblance, somewhat apart from what later became the character of the Scottish art. In London he executed many commissions for prominent individuals and families, notably the Earl of Buckingham for his seat at Blickling in Norfolk. By the Earl of Burlington he was commissioned to paint a large group of the royal family, including the king ; but death arrested the hand of the artist before putting in the portrait of the " boetry and bainting " hating monarch. This picture, by an alliance with the Burlington family, passed into the possession of the ducal house of Devonshire. Many of his earlier works are in Scotland, several being in the galleries of the Dukes of Argyll and Hamilton. In the museum of the Scottish Antiquaries hangs his portrait of Patrick, created first Earl of Marchmont the year after being appointed Lord Chancellor of Scotland, and who in 1684 was in hiding in the family vaults of Polwarth church, where his daughter, the celebrated Lady Grizel Baillie, then at the age of twelve, supplied him with food. At Amisfield House were portraits of Sir Francis Kinloch and the Earl of Wemyss. His portrait of himself is said to be in the gallery of painters at Florence, and another, also of himself, Kneller-looking and carefully executed, hangs in the Scottish National Gallery, the latter having been engraved in the ' Bee, or Literary Weekly Intelligencer.' ^ During his lifetime he received an elegant tribute from the poet 1 A bust-portrait of Lady Hyndford in a blue dress was sold in the Gibson- Craig collection in 1887 for ;,^57, 15s. I06 ART IN SCOTLAND. Boyse, and also from Somerville, whom he painted. His death, which occurred in Leicester Square on the 14th January ^ 173I) was bewailed by his friends Thomson and Mallet, the latter being the author of the following epitaph, long since obliterated from the monument over his grave in the Greyfriars churchyard in Edinburgh : — ** Dear to the good and wise, dispraised by none, Here sleep in peace the father and the son. By virtue as by nature close allied, The painter's genius, but without his pride. Worth unambitious, wit afraid to shine, Honour's clear light, and friendship's warmth divine. The son, fair rising, knew too short a date ; But oh, how more severe the parent's fate ! He saw him torn untimely from his side, Felt all a father's anguish, — wept and died." The modest enthusiast in art, John Smibert, a friend of the author of the ' Gentle Shepherd,* and a native of Edinburgh, whose life links the seventeenth with the following century, was an artist of some note in his day. He was born in 1684, two years later than Aikman, in the Grassmarket, and was the son of a dyer. After serving an apprenticeship as a common house-painter in Edinburgh, he gradually wrought his way against the usual ob- stacles which a poor artist must always encounter, and ventured to London, where for bare subsistence he turned his hand to coach - painting. Devoting his time afterwards to study, and painting for that much-maligned but very useful class of people known as picture-dealers, he managed to spend three years in Italy copying from the old masters. While in Italy he made the acquaintance of the famous Dean Berkeley, subsequently Bishop of Cloyne ; and at Florence painted a picture of Siberian Tartars for the Grand Duke of Tuscany, which that noble presented to the Russian Czar. He was so far benefited by his study in Italy, that on his return to London he was able to command a very fair practice as a portrait-painter. This was probably about 1 7 2 1 or 1 June, according to Walpole. JOHN SMIBERT. 10/ 1722, as Allan Ramsay's poetical epistle "To a Friend at Flor- ence " seems to have been addressed to Smibert about that date. He drew the portrait of Ramsay which was prefixed to his second quarto volume, published in 1728: possibly this is the same which is still in the Newhall House collection, and stated to be the original family portrait.^ After having by his ardour and perseverance surmounted the asperities of his fortune, he was tempted to embark in a curious and quixotic scheme, much against the persuasion and advice of his friends. Dean Berkeley, whose benevolent heart was set upon civilising the foreign heathen, con- ceived the idea of instituting a university or college of science and art in the Bermudas, in which the children of the natives were to be trained and indoctrinated in Christian duties, civil knowledge, and the fine arts. The scheme, which was favoured and encouraged by the king, and as a matter of course by many of his courtiers, was joined by Smibert, who, along with Dean Berkeley, left Eng- land in 1728, in the visionary expectation of passing a useful, happy, and tranquil life in an ideal climate. The death of the king, however, and consequent cooling of the ardour of those who imitated him in the usual courtly manner, brought the scheme to a premature end, and Smibert, being probably acquainted with this on his arrival in America, proceeded no farther. Along with the Dean, he remained about two years at Newport in Rhode Island, where he painted a large picture of Berkeley with his family, including a portrait of himself: this picture is said to be preserved at Yale College, where it is prized as being the first picture group of figures painted in the New World. The " civil- ising scheme" was finally abandoned at Boston, where he was more fortunate than he would have been successful if he had reached his original destination, as he married the daughter of Dr Williams, the Latin master of Boston School, of consider- able fortune, whom, in March 1751, he left a widow with two children. His son Nathaniel gave promise of considerable ability as an artist, but died too young to achieve a reputa- ^ Gentle Shepherd, edition 1808. I08 ART IN SCOTLAND. tion.i Smibert's name is chronicled as one of the pioneers of art in America. Another Scottish artist contemporaneous with Smibert, prac- tising in England, is mentioned by Vertue, but no relative cir- cumstances of him are recorded beyond the bare fact that he was born in Leith in 1682, and known as Alexander Nesbitt. In the list of subscribers to the edition of Allan Ramsay's poems which was published in 1721, as well as elsewhere, there appears beside the name of Smibert that of James Norrie, known as " old Norrie," who was probably the first to create, or at least to minister to, the taste for landscape-painting in the Scottish metropolis. There were several generations of the same family carrying on business as house painters and decorators in Edinburgh. Their shop, which was near Allan Ramsay's in the High Street, was only closed about 1850; and the last of them in the business, a great chum of J. F. Williams and of the Waverley Club coterie, had a shop in Register Street.^ A large portion of their business was land- scape decorations, a form of art then very fashionable in and about Edinburgh, more especially applied to the mantelpieces of private dwellings ; and from their workshop emanated more than one distinguished artist, not the least of whom was Alexander Runciman. An interesting house in Riddle's Close, originally the residence of Sir John Smith of Grotham, Provost of Edin- burgh, is mentioned by Dr Wilson, the second flat of which was in his time occupied as a binder's workshop. One of the apart- ments, bearing the date 1678 on the stuccoed roof, had wooden panelled walls decorated in a rich style by Norrie ; on every panel, including those of the shutters and doors, was a different landscape, sometimes executed with great spirit; even the keystone of an arched recess had a mask painted on it : and the Doctor describes the whole as being singularly beautiful, notwithstanding the injury which many of the paintings had sustained.^ The Norries, " old Norrie " and his son James, also painted a few landscape-pictures, 1 Walpole, Scottish Nation, &c. ^ r.S.A. private publication. ' Memorials of Edinburgh. MILTON HOUSE DECORATIONS. IO9 apart from being merely applied to wall decoration, as the New- hall catalogue mentions two views by J. Norrie, one of them dated 1 731.1 'Phe Royal Scottish Academy possesses a portrait of the first of the name in the business. Among other landscape- painters of about this period there is mention of a "Cheap Cooper"; but their works, if preserved at all, are scarce to be met with, and difficult to identify. Reference has already been made to the destruction, often wanton or inconsiderate, of many specimens of old art in Scot- land ; and while these lines are being written,^ notice is given of the demolition of the old patrician mansion known as Milton House in the Canongate of Edinburgh, to make way for a Board School. Although in no ways very valuable as a piece of archi- tecture, being built in the somewhat heavy style common to the early part of the last century, it contains some interesting decora- tions of the painter's art of that period. The walls of the drawing- room, wherein Hanoverian and Jacobite courtiers had formerly assembled, are decorated by a series of landscape and allegorical subjects, enclosed by rich borders of fruit and flowers, executed with great spirit, and still fresh and bright in colour. Interspersed among the ornamental borders are various grotesque figures, having the appearance of being copied from a fourteenth-century illuminated missal. These represent a cardinal, monk, priest, and other churchmen, painted with considerable humour, and diff"er so much from the general character of the composition, that it was probably a whim of Lord Milton, which the artist managed to humour without detracting from the harmony of the design. It is possible that old Norrie had something to do with these. Dr Daniel Wilson, on supposition, has ascribed them to Zuccarelli, who had a reputation for such work at that time in England. Patrick Gibson, the artist, in 181 6 mentions them as the work of Delacour, who was the first master of the Trustees' Academy, appointed in 1760; but these are mere guesses. Along with these may be mentioned some fragments of paintings of an un- 1 Gentle Shepherd, 1808. 2 April 1886. no ART IN SCOTLAND. usual character for a sacred edifice, which were discovered on the demolition of one of the chapels on the restoration of St Giles's in Edinburgh in 1829. These appear to have been painted on the panelling of the chamber about the period of the Revolution, when it formed an appendage to the Council Chambers, and represent a trumpeter, a soldier bearing a banner, and a female figure hold- ing a cornucopia, in the costume of William III. They passed into the collection of the late C. K. Sharpe, and are described as being over half the size of life and really works of some merit. So early as the year 1729, there are traces of an association, doubtless the first of the kind in Scotland, in Edinburgh, bearing the somewhat pretentious title of the Academy of St Luke, which seems to have been composed of the few artists and lovers of art then in the Scottish metropolis, and remarkable as including in its list of artist members the name of Allan Ramsay, junior, who would then be in his sixteenth or seventeenth year. The follow- ing is a copy of the indenture : ^ — " At Edinburgh, the eighteenth day of October, A. Dom. MDCCXXIX. " We, Subscribers, Painters, and Lovers of Painting, Fellowes of the Edinburgh School oi St Luke, for the encouragement of these excelent 3X\.soi Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, &^ct., and Improvement of the Students : Have agreed to erect a publict Academy, whereinto every one that inclines, on aplication to our Director and Council, shal be admited on paying a smal sum for defraying Charges of Figure and Lights, &ct. For further encouragement, some of our Members who have a Fine Colection of Models in Plaister from the best Antique Statues, are to lend the use of them to the Academy. " To prevent all disorder, the present Members have unanimously agreed on the observation of the Folowing Rules : — "I. To meet anualy on the eighteenth day of October, being the Feast of St Luke our Patron, to chuse a Director, Treasurer, and Secretary, and four common Councillours, for the ensuing Year, of which Council of Seven ther shal ever be four Mr Painters. This sd. Council to be chosen yearly, and may or not be rechosen, but upon no account to continoue above two Years at a Time. 1 Patrick Gibson, Ed. Ann. Reg., 18 16. The indenture afterwards passed into the collection of the late David Laing, and is now in the R.S.A. ACADEMY OF ST LUKE. Ill " II. That the Sederunts of the Society be Registrated in a Book to be kept by the Secretary for the time being. "III. The Academy to meet on the first of November Jajvij and twenty-nine years, and to continoue till the last of February, four times a-week — viz., on Mundays, Tusdays, Thursdays, and Fridays — at five o'clock at night, and to draw the space of two hours. To meet again on the first of June, and continoue till the last of July, on the for said days of the week ; but the two Drawing hours to be in the morning from six to eight. The Summer Season being chiefly de- sign'd for Drawing from Antique Models and Drawghts of the best Masters of Foraigne Schools by a Sky Light ; for which Purpose, a large Portfolie to be kept in the Academy for preserving all curious Drawings already given, or that may be given for that end. " IV. On Placing of every new Figure, those present to draw Lots for the choise of their Seats. " V. That every Member acording to His Seniority shal be allowed in His turn to place or put the Figure in what ever Posture He pleases, or have it in His power to depute annother to do it for Him, and to- have the first choise of His Seat. " VI. All Noblemen, Gentlemen, Patrons, Painters, and lovers of Painting, who shal contribute to carrying on the Designe, (if they do not incline to draw Themselves) shal have the Privilege by a-written Order to our Director, to assign His Right to any Young Artist whom He is Pleased to Patronise. Linton. Garlies. William Adam. GiLB. Elliot. Andrew Hay. JA. MCEUEN. JA. Balfour. Mark Sandilands. Allan Ramsay. Wm. Robertson. Hugh Clerk, Jun. Geo. Marshall, Preses. RiCHD. Cooper, Treas. Roderick Chalmers, Secretary. John Alexander. And. McIlwraith. Ja. Norrie. Alexr. Guthrie. Th. Trotter. John Paterson. James Norrie, Jun. Allan Ramsay, Jun. Dav, Elizat. James Clerk. Alexr. Clerk. Wm. Denune. W. Trotter. David Clelland. Robert Yelton." 112 ART IN SCOTLAND. The Academy thus constituted contained eleven honorary and eighteen artist members, and its title and rules were evidently suggested by those of the Academy of St Luke at Rome, where one or two of the members had studied. With regard to this list, John Alexander and the Norries have already been mentioned, and Ramsay remains to be noticed further on. George Marshall, the Preses, who died in 1 732, was a painter of still-life and portraits, and is said to have studied under Kneller in London and also in Rome, having previously acquired the rudiments of his art from Scougal. Roderick Chalmers also practised portrait-painting, and has left a picture, in the hall of the Incorporated Trades of Edinburgh, in which are introduced portraits of the various deacons working at their different crafts or " essays." Far more important than these, however, was Richard Cooper, the engraver, who did more for the cultivation of art in Scotland than has hitherto been acknow- ledged, and in whose studio the celebrated Sir Robert Strange learned his art before going to France. Cooper was most prob- ably of English birth, although Edinburgh sometimes claims the credit of that event, and was at first, it is believed, a drawing- master, after which he studied art at Rome with a view to follow- ing painting as a profession. He was an excellent draughtsman, and possessed a good collection of drawings, including some by the great Italian masters, and is known as the engraver of many plates, among which are noted the children of Charles I., with a dog, and Henrietta Maria after Vandyke; William III. and Mary; Lord Bacon; Wentworth, Earl of Strafford ; and Annibale Caracci's Dead Christ. With reference to this Academy of St Luke, — the "Missing Academy," as it has sometimes been called, — much discussion was at one time carried on as to its history. An effort was made by one of the Clerks to associate its original foundation with the name of Sir George Clerk-Maxwell, Bart. ; but this, the late David Laing has clearly pointed out, could not have been the case, as Mr Clerk's remarks of 1784 simply apply to the Trustees' School ACADEMY OF ST LUKE. II3 of Drawing, commenced in 1760.1 Dr Laing, however, evidently made a mistake when he identified this Academy with that attended by Strange, on the authority of the memoirs of the latter. In the memoirs of the engraver it is clearly stated, that with a view to fostering his own art, as well as cultivating drawing and painting. Cooper in 1735 was instrumental in encouraging the opening of a Winter's Academy, '' at the modest subscription of half-a-guinea." It has to be noted that the St Luke's Academy was not projected merely as a "Winter" one; and besides, from the importance and number of the names on its list, it is not likely that Strange would have omitted to give it its proper title if it had existed for six years. In the Winter's Academy certainly, and probably in the St Luke's, Cooper gave his superintendence and the use of his portfolios. The latest mention of the ambitious Academy of St Luke occurs in June 1731, when a room in the University was granted for its use, soon after which it seems to have expired. ^ Proceedings of Scottish Antiquaries, vol. viii. H 114 CHAPTER VII. Late eighteenth century — Allan Ramsay — The Academy of the brothers Foulis of Glasgow — Notice of its pupils — David Allan — James and Williafn Tassie. It is doubtful if art ever asserted itself or flourished under more disadvantageous circumstances than it has done in Scotland, where it may be said to have definitely formed its style in the middle of the eighteenth century. The long-continued poverty of the country was then so keenly felt in the capital, that the magistrates were compelled to take measures for relieving the distress by a regular organisation ; ^ besides which, and what was no doubt to a large extent the cause of this poverty, the country was much disturbed by the Jacobite risings. It was a period of many and important changes in social life, trade, and government. The disadvantages of the old feudal system, and the old and still burning question of the relation between landlord and tenant, began to be felt and discussed; the importance of colonial enterprise showed signs of developing many of our commercial towns to something of their present importance; and the dis- turbed state of the Highlands offered a tempting opportunity to Jacobite enthusiasts. The Muse of Scottish poetry, almost mute since the time of Gavin Douglas, Henryson, and Dunbar, began to find voice again in the odes of Thomson, the ballad verse of Mallet, and the beautiful pastorals of Allan Ramsay — the only obstacle to the progress of culture and the advancement of art being the opposing influence of political party strife. Art up till ^ Scots Magazine, 1841. ALLAN RAMSAY. II5 and at this date was, comparatively speaking, in such a low- condition that it can hardly be said to have existed at all in a national sense. We have seen instances of several foreign artists practising their profession in Scotland ; and no doubt the union of the Crowns had much to do with the migration of Scottish artists to London. The art of painting, from its first appearance in Scotland, however, never became completely extinguished, as individual vanity still kept some mediocre painter's brush at work in the line of portraiture. Architecture had begun to show signs of a revival, although retarded by native Puritanism ; and many handsome mansions and other edifices were being built. It was far different, however, with the sculptor's art — that being almost exclusively confined to the carvings on tombstones of the hideous relics of humanity, pudding-headed winged cherubs of almost barbaric rudeness, or carved hatchments on mansion doorways. What little work in the art of sculpture was executed in Scot- land in the eighteenth century was entirely by foreigners of little distinction, and of no importance. It was under these circumstances that Allan Ramsay, the son of the poet and Christina Ross, an Edinburgh lawyer's daughter, appeared. He was born the first year after the marriage, in 1713,1 and was connected, as old Allan never forgot, with the Ramsays of Dalwolsey and the Douglases of Muthill — the poet being great-grandson to Ramsay the Laird of Cockpen, a younger brother to Ramsay of Dalhousie. The connection, however, had for long been completely dissolved, and so far as the house of Dalhousie was concerned, " he might have remained a shepherd on the wastes of Crawford Moor, or periwig-making in Edinburgh, till the day of his death, had he not raised himself into prominence by his own merit." Young Allan began to sketch about the age of twelve. At this time his father had just changed his shop from opposite to Niddry's Wynd to that which was later occupied by Creech at the east end of the Luckenbooths, and whereon the newly ^ Bryan erroneously 1709. Il6 ART IN SCOTLAND. painted sign over the door containing the heads of Drummond of Hawthornden and Ben Jonson ^ may have excited the admi- ration of the future artist. The quaint letter of old Allan written to his friend Smibert, then in New England, and dated loth May 1736, tells of the young painter's movements at that time. "... My good auld wife is still my bed-fellow ; my son Allan has been pursuing his science since he was a dozen years auld ; was with Mr Hyffidg at London for some time about two years ago ; has been since at home, painting here like a Raphael ; sets out for the seat of the beast beyond the Alps within a month hence, — to be away about two years. I'm sweer to part with him, but cannot stem the current which flows from the advice of his patrons and his own inclinations." ^ On this his first visit to Rome, he remained for three years, during which he studied under Solimene, a Neapolitan artist, sometimes known as L' Abate Ciccio, of much talent and versatility; and afterwards under Girolamo Imperiale, a Genoese, who subsequently quitted painting for the art of engraving. On his return to Edinburgh he painted the well-known portrait of his father, those of President Forbes, his own sister in Newhall House, and that of Archibald, Duke of Argyll, now in the galleries of the Corporation of Glasgow. Fortune and fame now flowing in upon the young artist, he was a source of no little pride to his father, who, as Burton says, "united in his person three incongruous social conditions, being by descent a country gentle- man, by personal qualifications a man of genius, and by profession the keeper of a book-stall and circulating library." About this time he married Miss Lindsay, the heiress of Eyvelic, in Perthshire, whose portrait he has left, and which is now in the Scottish National Gallery. The latter portrait is a dainty picture of a charming Scotch lassie, which would alone sustain the reputation of the artist as one of the very best portrait-painters of the time among 1 Gentle Shepherd, 1808. 2 Ibid. The patrons referred to were probably Clerk of Penicuik and Forbes of Newhall, friends of old Allan. ALLAN RAMSAY. II7 native British artists. She is represented in a warm-coloured silk dress, with lace tippet and sleeves, engaged in arranging a group of flowers in a large vase. Beautifully drawn, and coloured in a grey tone, it has only one defect — that being an unfortunate arrange- ment by which the right fore-arm being concealed behind the elbow, the left hand and arm at first glance seem to unite rather awkwardly. The head is evidently a faithful likeness, with much individuality, and the only visible hand is delicately painted and very perfect in form and colour. Standing in front of this bright happy -looking picture, it is amusing to recall some criticisms which have been attached to his works, that artistically they are of no interest to others than those concerned in the persons of his sitters. He now intimately associated with the leading men of culture in Edinburgh, with whom he was partly instrumental in founding a small literary association known as the " Select Society," which was the forerunner of similar societies in Scotland. This, after Ramsay's departure to London, developed a " Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Sciences, Manufacture, and Agriculture " in 1755, supported by voluntary contributions, and the career of which falls to be noticed at a later date. With a view towards improving himself in his art, and cultivat- ing his profession in a richer soil and wider field than were afforded by the Scottish capital, he removed to London, where he was first patronised by the Earl of Bridge water, and afterwards by Lord Bute, who introduced him to the notice of the Prince of Wales, his Royal Highness sitting for two portraits, one of which was a whole-length. The full-sized portrait of Lord Bute was so successful that it is said to have excited the good-natured emula- tion of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who, while about the same time being engaged in a similar portrait, declared that he wished to show legs with Ramsay's Lord Bute, that noble's extremities having been so skilfully drawn and painted by the Scotch artist. He now made a visit of several months to Rome, where, as Fuseli says, he was smit with the love of classic lore, and desired to trace on Il8 ART IN SCOTLAND. dubious vestiges the haunts of ancient genius and learning, for which he was tolerably well qualified on account of his acquaint- ance with Latin and many of the modern languages. He arrived at Rome, accompanied by his wife and sister, about the Christmas of 1755, and was visited soon after by Mr Lumisden, who writes thus to his brother-in-law, Robert Strange, the engraver : " Though I never visit strangers first, I thought I might do so in the case of Mr Ramsay. The reception I met with was very dry, and I ascribed it to fatigue. On account of the ladies I made other two visits, when I found the same dryness still continued." The pawky Scot, no doubt looking forward to future Court favours, was too canny to associate with such a well-known and active Jacobite as Mr Lumisden, who later on writes how he sometimes went to the Academy and " drew such figures as every one laughed at, and wondered how he could pretend to be a painter." It is probable that this had something to do with the unpleasant occur- rence between Strange and Ramsay regarding the engraving of the portrait of the Prince of Wales some years later on. On his return from Rome he paid another visit to Edinburgh, where his father died in 1757, and who being at the time of his death in] embar- rassed circumstances, Allan paid off his debts, and settled an annuity on his unmarried sister Janet, who survived till 1804. It was at this time that he added a new wing to and otherwise modified the original grotesqueness of the " Poet's Nest," as old Allan's house was called. He was now so wealthy that he was said to have been worth ;£'4o,ooo, and on his return to London, after the accession to the throne of George HI., he was appointed principal painter to the Crown in 1767, in succession to Shakelton, who, it is said, died on account of hearing of Ramsay's appointment to his office. Reynolds, for some unknown reason, was passed over in this appointment. The official position thus conferred upon Ramsay was worth something very considerable beyond the mere title, as the king had a great weakness for having portraits painted of himself and his queen, which he presented to foreign ambassadors and others. ALLAN RAMSAY. II9 The monarch sat to Ramsay for his coronation portrait in Buckingham Palace, and the painter sometimes wrought in the dining-room there, the queen talking with the painter in her native language, while her royal spouse was invigorating himself with his favourite diet of boiled mutton and turnips ; after which Ramsay was invited to sit down and take his dinner. His portrait of the queen, while being finished in his studio in Harley Street, neces- sitated the painter having beside him the Crown jewels and regalia, which were accordingly sent there — during which time sentinels were placed at the house for their protection. The two following characteristic letters of the artist have been preserved. They are addressed to Richard Davenport, Esq., and are dated London, the first letter June 16, 1767 ; and the second, July 8 of the same year : — " Sir, — I hope by this time you have given shelter under your roof to my Jean Jacques Rousseau, who, if he should prove less witty, will be at the same time less ungrateful, less mischievous, and less charge- able than his predecessor. I am afraid, however, that both of them are attended with more expense than their company is worth, as you will see by the note which, in obedience to your commands, I have enclosed, who am with great respect, Sir, your most obliged and humble servant, Allan Ramsay." "Sir,— I have received the money of your draught for Rousseau's picture and frame, for which I give you a great many thanks. As to the original^ in every sense of the word, the last advices we had of him were by Lady Holland, who arrived at Calais the day after he left it, and where he had entertained the simple inhabitants with the hairbreadth 'scapes his liberty and life had made in England. Where he has disposed of himself we have not yet learnt ; but so much im- portance will not continue long anywhere without being discovered." ^ He now made a third visit to Rome in company with his son, where he spent most of his time in the Vatican library, being unable to paint owing to an accident which he had sustained while showing his servants how to escape from the house in the event 1 The Mirror, 1826. 120 ART IN SCOTLAND. of a fire taking place — a calamity of that kind having recently occurred in London in which several lives were lost. During this visit he wrote to London for his assistant Davie Martin to join him, with drawings from his studio, in order "to show the Italians how we draw in England." He subsequently made a fourth visit to the Eternal City, which so fascinated him, chiefly on account of his health ; but not getting better, he set off for home, and expired on the way at Dover, of a slow fever brought on by the fatigue of travelling. During his absence at Rome, his work was carried on chiefly by his assistant Reinagle. In addition to portraits, he sometimes painted subjects on ceilings and walls, and employed a number of assistants : these consisted of a Mrs Black, who had some taste ; a Dutchman named Vandycke ; a German painter of draperies named Eickhart; Roth, another German; David Martin, his fellow-country- man j Vesperies, sometimes employed on fruits and flowers ; and Reinagle, who has preserved most of the facts of his life. Al- though thus occupying a very prominent position as an artist, with the exception of a few of his works he can hardly be placed in the very first rank of the British painters of his time. It is probable that had he painted fewer works and carried on his art less as a business, he would have now ranked higher as an artist. In a pamphlet by Bouquet, published in 1755, on the "Present State of the Arts in England," he is highly spoken of as " an able painter, who, acknowledging no other guide than nature, brought a rational taste with him from Italy." He associated or corresponded with many of the eminent men of his time, among whom may be mentioned Rousseau, Voltaire, and Dr Johnson, the latter having said, " You will not find a man in whose conversation there is more instruction, more information, or more elegance, than in Ramsay's." Besides being, as already said, a good linguist, he was the author of several articles on history, politics, and criticism, which were collected after his death ; he is also credited as the author of a pamphlet relating the true story of Elizabeth Canning, and with- stood the satire of Hogarth and experienced the sarcasm of FOULIS'S ACADEMY IN GLASGOW. 121 Churchill on account of his admiration of the old masters. His death occurred on the loth of August 1784.^ At the time in which Ramsay had achieved his reputation in London, an attempt was made to institute an Academy of the Fine Arts in Glasgow, being the first in Scotland, if we except the short- lived Academy of St Luke in Edinburgh. It was in the summer of 1753, at a time when the country was but ill prepared for it on account of the causes already mentioned, that the brothers Robert and Andrew Foulis inaugurated an academy for the study of the Fine Arts, partly in connection with their business as printers and booksellers. The art of printing had attained a respectable degree of excellence in Glasgow prior to the appearance of these two brothers, the elder of whom, Robert, was born in or near Glasgow on the 20th April 1707, and Andrew on the 23d November 1712. Their father was a maltman named Faulls, and apprenticed his son Robert, who was by far the more energetic of the brothers, to a barber, in which humble capacity he attracted the attention of Dr Francis Hutchison, Professor of Moral Philosophy in Glasgow University, and who is supposed to have first suggested to Robert the idea of starting business as a bookseller and printer. As a higher education was then more necessary than now for such a business, he attended some of the classes in the university, although not carrying on his studies so far as Andrew did, and who for several years taught Greek, Latin, and French. In furtherance of their object, after visiting the famous collection of books at Oxford the brothers went to Paris in 1738, on the 29th September of which year Thomas Innes, of the Scots College there, writes to Mr Edgar at Rome that they are " both young men of very good parts. They set off chiefly," he continues, " for the Belles-Lettres, and seem to design to be professors of that in the University of Glasgow, or perhaps to be governors or tutors to young noblemen, for which last employment they seem to be very well cut out in their own way, having very good parts and talents, very moderate, and making morality their chief study." .iAUan Cunningham, &c. 122 ART IN SCOTLAND. In this letter Innes makes great efforts to ascertain their religious and political opinions, which they seem to have been extremely reticent in showing, although the professor had them at dinner at least once a-week, having been the bearers of a letter of recom- mendation to the Chevalier Ramsay, who, with the young prince his pupil, was then out of town. On the 27 th October follow- ing, Innes, again writing to Edgar, mentions that " the two Glasgow gentlemen parted from this four or five days ago, to return home by London, carrying along with them no less than six or seven hogsheads of books, which they had bought up here. During their abode here, we have endeavoured to use them with all sort of kindness and civility, and by a common letter, in name of this college, signed by all the administrators, we answered the letter which they brought us from the university [Glasgow] of which I speak." He again speaks of their probable future occupa- tion as tutors, and says, " Their damning principle is Latitudinari- anism, or an universal tolerantisme, with an aversion to persecuting any for their different sentiments in religious matters ; and what is more, they seem resolved to use all their ingine to propagate these principles." ^ In the following year they again visited Paris, spending much time in the public libraries, again collecting a number of Greek and Roman classics, which they sold in London at a profit.^ In 1 741, Robert began business in Glasgow as a printer, and in 1742 there appeared the first issues from the press of the two brothers, followed by their numerous magnificent specimens of typography, which would almost induce us to believe that printing is one of the lost arts. Their academy, which was inaugurated in 1753, was opened in the following year, in the old university in High Street, the Fac- ulty Hall having been granted the Foulises for exhibition pur- poses, besides several other apartments for the use of the students. An incomplete and undated letter of Robert's, in Lord Buchan's MSS., shows that the projection of the academy was neither a ^ Scots Magazine, 1822. 2 Maitland Club, 1831. FOULIS'S ACADEMY IN GLASGOW. 1 23 sudden nor ill-digested scheme. *' In the years 1738 and 1739," he writes, "having gone abroad and resided for several months at each time at Paris, we had frequent opportunities of conversing with gentlemen of every liberal profession,^ and to observe the connection and mutual influence of the arts and sciences upon one another, and in drawing and modelling on many manufac- tures. And 'tis obvious that whatever nation has the lead in fashion, must previously have- invention in drawing diffused, otherwise they can never rise above copying their neighbours. . . . In the year 1743 I went to France alone, partly to bring home some manuscripts, partly to collect more ancient authors, and to have brought a single graver, if a good one could have been had on reasonable terms. The Rebellion coming on soon after, prevented all scheming for a time. . . . In 175 1 I went abroad for the fourth time, in company with a younger brother, and spent near two years. . . . Before this journey was undertaken, the scheme of an academy had been pretty well digested, and often the subject of debate in private conversation." ^ Robert returned from this prolonged visit in 1 753, having previously sent home his brother, accompanied by a painter, engraver, and copperplate printer. The idea of an art academy such as they contemplated, was from the first by many people considered a quixotic one, and some of their friends endeavoured to dissuade them from the enter- prise. The Right Hon. Charles Townshend predicted its almost certain ultimate failure ; and Robert Foulis's friend, Mr Harcourt, Secretary to the Earl of Northumberland, writing under date of 20th December 1753, tells him, in the concluding part of his letter, that "we are overrun with prints of all kinds; but good printing will be deemed a novelty since the days of R. Stephens, who minded only one thing ; and pray consider, he lay under more disadvantages than you do now. Print for posterity, and prosper." 1 The enterprise, however, was favoured, and partly supported, by Messrs Campbell of Clathic, Glassford of Dougal- 1 Maitland Club. 124 ART IN SCOTLAND. ston, and more lately, Archibald Ingram, merchants in Glasgow, in reply to an appeal to the gentlemen of that city, in which it was represented by Robert Foulis that they would thus encourage a finer kind of manufacture, which would ultimately repay them with profit for any immediate outlay which they might incur. The three gentlemen named, by contract became partners nn the academy, binding themselves to pay each ^40 per annum, such sums to be repayable out of the profits. With these exceptions, the appeal does not seem to have been heartily, if at all, responded to, and, to quote Robert Foulis's own words, " there seemed to be a pretty general emulation who should run the scheme most down." The academy was thus started in the face of very con- siderable difficulty, as there was little definite and almost no immediate income with which to meet a not inconsiderable ex- penditure ; besides, it is said, having to contend against a strong national prejudice in favour of foreign art and artists. Robert now gave his attention almost exclusively to the development of the academy, leaving the control and management of the print- ing and book department to his brother. The masters who taught were Payen, a painter; P. Aveline, an engraver of considerable skill ; and M. Torrie, a statuary, as he was called.^ Another visit to the Continent is mentioned as being made by Robert in 1759;^ but this is uncertain. Among the personal friends of Foulis, interesting himself in the success of the academy, was Sir John Dalrymple, who writes Robert from Edinburgh on the ist December 1757 : "Your things are come to town. I am completely and perfectly pleased with your busts. The carrier let the large Antoninus fall at Yair's door, by which means the head was knocked off the shoulders. . . . I was much disappointed with the picture in the Apollo teaching the young man to play on the harp. It is by no means executed with Cochran's usuall accuracy. . . . The Holy Family of Widows (Guido's) Scholar is beloved, and Cochran's Saint admired ; but those that will take most, by which I mean ^ S. T. D. in the Brougham, 1832. 2 Letter in Scots Magazine, 1759. FOULIS'S ACADEMY IN GLASGOW. 1 25 that will sell best, are lawndscapes. ... A lawndscape hits the present taste of ornamenting a room, by which I mean, mak- ing it more ugly than it naturally is," — a very doubtful compliment to the art. Sir John had then so far interested himself as to ensure them of a hundred and fifty guineas of subscriptions, and was not without some hopes of the possibility of Foulis getting some aid from the Government towards his academy, in the form of an annual grant — an idea which he gives Lord Selkirk the credit of originating. In the year 1759, with a view to its more permanent establish- ment and development, some of the productions of the students were exhibited in the shop of Robert Fleming in Edinburgh, and also in the gallery set apart for them in the University of Glasgow. In the advertisement calling attention to these, a proposal was added and published, " that such gentlemen as are willing to pro- mote this design, shall advance certain sums annually for any number of years they may think proper ; during which times they are to chuse among the prints, designs, paintings, models, or casts which are the productions of this academy, such lots as may amount to the value of the sums advanced. The subscribers," it is added, " shall have a receipt for the sums respectively paid by them, signed either by Mr Foulis at Glasgow, or Mr Fleming, his trustee at Edinburgh. Gentlemen may withdraw their subscrip- tions when they please."^ This proposal seems only to have procured one or two subscribers, and the plan not being carried out in consequence, the academy went on upon the original basis. The students wrought in the academy daily at painting, engraving, and making designs from ancient authors for illustrative purposes. On three evenings in the week they drew from the living model, and on the other three from the antique, modelling also being practised.^ While thus employed, the students who were appren- tices received such wages as they might have earned had they followed a more mechanical employment, in addition to which, the great inducement was held out, that such as showed sufficient ^ Scots Magazine, 1759. ^ Letter in Scots Magazine, 1759. 126 ART IN SCOTLAND. indications of genius would be sent abroad to study at the expense of the academy. In the year 1761 an exhibition was held in the open air, in the inner court of the college, similar to those which were held on Corpus Christi Day in the Place Dauphine in Paris, by the artists not belonging to the Academy there, at one of which the famous Chardin first had attention drawn to his paintings. The occasion was the coronation of George III. ; and David Allan, who was then working in the academy, has left a view of the exhibition, in which a copy of Rubens's Daniel in the Den of Lions appears in a lofty and prominent place, literally skied on the wall of the church tower, behind which rises the smoke of a bonfire : the same artist also executed a view of the interior of the academy, of con- siderable interest, — both of which were preserved at Newhall House, near Edinburgh.^ In 1763, while writing on behalf of a student going abroad, Robert Foulis mentions the academy as being in " a reputable degree of perfection," — its progress, however, being considerably hindered by the death, in 1775, of Mr Ingram. On the 23d February of that year, the author of ' Letters from Edin- burgh' 2 writes thus : "Some years ago the printing-office at Glasgow was a formidable rival to that at Edinburgh, and had the two celebrated printers there pursued their business, they might have carried away the whole trade of Scotland to themselves. But alas ! men are but men, as Tristram Shandy- observes, and the best have their weaknesses. An unfortunate desire seized these two gentlemen of instituting an academy of painting, and of buying a collection of pictures ; forgetting that the place where this academy was to be instituted was amongst a society of tradesmen, who would throw away no money on such subjects. With this idea, they bought paintings which nobody else will buy again, and which now lie upon their hands in high preservation. During the rage of this fancy, they forgot their former business, and neglected an art which, from their editions of Homer and Milton, might ^ Only one of these — that of the interior — is now at Newhall. 2 Letters from Edinburgh (Topham), 1776 : London. FOULIS'S ACADEMY IN GLASGOW. 12/ have made them immortal — to run after paltry copies of good paintings, which they had been informed were originals. When I visited these gentlemen, I had heard of their printing, but never of their academy. It was in vain I asked for books — I had always a picture thrust into my hand ; and, like Boniface, though they had nothing in print worth notice, they said they could show me a delicate engraving. You may well imagine that this ambition has prevented their former success -, for though poetry and paint- ing may be sister arts, I never heard that painting and printing were of the same family : if they are, their interests have been very opposite." At this date, 1775, the difficulties in which the academy early found itself involved were still further increased by those of the firm to whose enterprise it owed its existence, and culminated in the death of Andrew Foulis in the same year. It had now become necessary that the academy (to which the three already-mentioned gentlemen's liabilities amounted, after deduc- tion, to about ;£ii4o), together with the printing business, should be wound up. Within the year of his brother's death, Robert, in the month of April, accompanied by a confidential workman named Robert Dewar, took the pictures and other works to London, where, forced on by his financial difficulties, they were brought to the hammer, against the advice of the auctioneer, at an unseasonable time, when the market was glutted by yearly importations of pictures from Paris. At this time, in writing his last letter to his son, Robert says : " All the people of rank, or at least the generality, are out of town, and the exhibition is dwin- dled even to less than what it was. I know no expedient that can be tried to help it but one — showing them for nothing and taking sixpence for the catalogue. ... It is very mortifying for me to be obliged to see this expenditure a load on the company : this has happened so independent of all choice, that I could no more help it than remove mountains." ^ During this time of discouragement he received the warm sympathy of the celebrated Dr William Hunter, who did not forget his obligation to Foulis at an earlier 1 Maitland Club. 128 ART IN SCOTLAND. period. The inevitable result, however, was, that the pictures brought miserable prices, immediately after which, on the 2d of June 1776, Robert died at Edinburgh on his journey home. The pictures thus sold included some examples attributed to Raphael — the most highly prized among which was a St Cecilia, which only brought £^2^. Professor Richardson states, on what he considered reliable authority, that this picture afterwards sold for ;^5oo. Two pictures out of the collection were acquired by the University of Glasgow, wherein they still remain, — the Martyrdom of St Catherine, by Jean Cossiers ; and the Carrying to the Tomb, attributed to Raphael, — neither of which is of very high merit, although Raeburn is stated to have given it as his opinion that the latter might be a veritable but early work of the master or of one of his pupils. The remainder of the works were scattered throughout the country. The academy thus lasted for about twenty-one years, and although hampered with difficulties all through its career, rendered the most important services in giving an impetus to the study of art in Scotland. So early as 1764, Foulis speaks of the principal prints produced in that year alone as being sufficient to fill a volume of sixty or seventy sheets. In addition to the pictures belonging to the academy, some of the students executed copies in Hamilton Palace of Titian's Supper at Emmaus, and the already - mentioned picture by Rubens of Daniel in the Lions' Den, which was shown in the palace on a celebration of the birthday of the duke. In the * Catalogue of Pictures, Drawings, Prints, &c., done at the Academy,' published for the use of subscribers, there are enumerated in all eighty-eight pictures (mostly copies), ranging from six shillings, the lowest price for a Storm at Sea, up to ;^7o for a copy of the Convention between England, Spain, and Holland at Somerset House, the second highest in the list being the Rubens, priced at fifty guineas ; thirty -one drawings, including several sets, range from one shilling to three guineas ; eleven hundred prints from one penny upwards ; and a FOULIS'S ACADEMY IN GLASGOW. 1 29 hundred and thirteen plaster casts of all kinds from a shilling up to eight guineas. Some mention may now be made of the students who wrought under the Foulises, or emanated from their academy — the most notable of whom were David Allan and James Tassie, who fall to be mentioned further on, and also Alexander Runciman, who studied there for a short time. David, Earl of Buchan, who afterwards aided more than one struggling artist in a substantial manner, studied for some time in Glasgow University, and prob- ably acquired there his knowledge of engraving, which as an amateur he practised on landscapes and portraits with tolerable skill. For a short time John Paxton was also a student, and after some Roman study, practised painting with some success, and was an exhibitor (from Rome) in 1766 at the exhibition of the Incorporated Society of Artists,^ and in 1769 at the Royal Academy's first exhibition, — dying in Bombay in 1780. Among other names preserved are those of Charles Cordiner, who painted landscapes; James Mitchell, who engraved several of the plates for the Raphael Bible, and Rubens's picture of Daniel in the Den of Lions ; William and Ralston Buchanan, the former of whom wrought for the same Bible ; and Andrew Paul, also an engraver, of whom Foulis says in his Catalogue, " His essays in landscape that were done before his death have that simplicity which promises superior excellence. His view of the West Street, called the Trongate of Glasgow, is the last and most capital of his works^ and was finished after his death by William Buchanan." Of the students who went abroad in compliance with the in- tention of the promoters of the academy, were Maxwell, who died soon after his arrival at Rome, and the better known William Cochran. The latter remained abroad for two or three years, chiefly in the studio of Gavin Hamilton in Rome, from whence he returned and settled in Glasgow, to which he was drawn by affectionate attachment to his aged mother, and where he painted numerous portraits. This seems to have been the •^ In London. I 130 ART IN SCOTLAND. only branch of art which he practised, although he copied land- scapes during his apprenticeship at Foulis's academy.^ His death was recorded in an inscription which formerly existed in the choir of the High Church of Glasgow — " In memory of Mr William Cochran, portrait-painter in Glasgow, who died Oct. 23, 1758, aged 47 years. The works of his pencil and this marble bear record of an eminent artist and a virtuous man."^ The third and the last who received the benefit of the academy in this form was Andrew Maclauchlane, who was subsequently married to a daughter of one of the Foulises. While he was at Rome he made a copy of Raphael's School of Athens, which passed into the hands of a dealer, and was destroyed through neglect. By far the most notable and the most popular artist of his time, as well as the most closely associated with the Foulises* academy, was David Allan, sometimes called the Scottish Hogarth, whose pencil has kept alive the character of the poet Ramsay, and pre- served from decay many of the manners and costumes of the Scottish peasantry. The first biographical notice of this artist was a short article in the * Scots Magazine' for 1804, in reply to a previous query. This was followed by another in 1805,^ succeeded by that in the 'Gentle Shepherd' of 1808, from communications chiefly by his widow, upon which most of the succeeding notices have been founded, including that by Allan Cunningham. He was the second son of a shoremaster of Alloa, and Janet Gullan from Dunfermline, born in the former place on the 13th February 1744, and baptised after his father David. Prematurely born, his mother died a few days after his birth, and it is said that owing to the extreme smallness of his mouth some difficulty was experi- enced in finding a suitable nurse. This necessitated a journey of some distance on horseback, young Allan being packed in a basket of cotton wool, from which, on account of the horse stumbling, he was ejected on to the snow, suffering a severe cut ^ A copy of a landscape, "after Van Niest," was at Newhall House. * Scots Magazine, 1808. Cochran must have been pretty well on in his profession before entering Foulis's service. Compare dates. 3 In the Biographia Scotica. DAVID ALLAN. I3I on the head, which nearly proved fatal and left a permanent mark. He had another narrow escape with his life when, about eighteen months old, he barely missed being carried off from his nurse's arms by a cannon-ball practising, at Alloa shore, in anticipation of the landing of Prince Charles. At the village where he was being nursed, a good deal of interest was taken in him by the goodwives, one worthy lady taking him out for a daily airing in her carriage. His first essay in drawing was made while he was kept from school by a burnt foot, his father giving him a bit of chalk to amuse himself by drawing on the floor. The chalk henceforth was seldom out of his hand, with such successful results that, when about the age of ten years, he was expelled from school for cari- caturing his master, a vain short-sighted old man, who strutted about the school in a long gown and nightcap of tartan, flourishing the rod of correction. His father had the shrewdness to recognise some talent in his juvenile efforts, and about the age of eleven apprenticed him to the brothers Foulis for seven years, where he made considerable progress and painted the two sketches of the academy which have already been referred to. When about the age of twenty, some of his productions were brought under the notice of Lord Cathcart of Shaw Park, near Alloa. Lady Cathcart introduced him to the notice of Lady Charlotte Erskine, Mrs Abercromby of Tullybody, mother. of the celebrated Sir Ralph, and some others, whose joint purses afforded him the means of further cultivating his art in Rome. He set off for Italy immedi- ately with introductory letters to Sir William Hamilton, then in Naples, and others, besides letters of credit for his support. During his residence for about eleven years in Rome, pursuing studies of, to him, very doubtful beneficence, he was the recipient of frequent kind letters from Lady Cathcart. Among other Scottish artists who had found their way to Rome, the most dignified was the classic Gavin Hamilton ; but there could have been little sympathy in art between him and the timid, insignifi- cant, and obsequious-looking pock-pitted youth from the shores of the Forth. The style of art then fashionable at Rome was the 132 ART IN SCOTLAND. cold academic formalism practised in the previous century by the Caracci — a style completely opposed to the nature of Allan, but in which, nevertheless, he was sufficiently successful to gain a medal of silver, and one of gold given by the Academy of St Luke in 1773 for his small picture of the Invention of Drawing, now in the Scottish National Gallery, being the first Scotsman after Hamilton who obtained that distinction, if we except the architect Robert Mylne. On his return to Britain he spent two years in London, but never having been of a robust constitution, his health induced him to return to Scotland, and he settled in Edinburgh, anticipating a beneficial change from his native air. It was only then that the real bent of his genius manifested itself in the humorous and characteristic illustrations of humble life, in the expression of which it cannot be said that he excelled in the higher qualities which give dignity to art, which were afterwards carried to such perfection by Wilkie. His reputation is chiefly sustained by his drawings and etchings, which latter art he acquired in the Foulises' academy. The best known of these are his illustrations to the ' Gentle Shepherd,' his aquatints of which were published by Fouhs in 1788 ; and a series of slighter etchings accompanying a collection of humorous Scottish songs. Two years prior to his publication of the * Gentle Shepherd,' he paid an unexpected visit to Newhall House and the scenes of the pastoral, accompanied by Captain Campbell of Glencross House, whom he complimented by introducing his likeness in the character of Sir William Worthy. All the other figures are said to be individual portraits ; four of the scenes at Newhall House are made use of; " the out and inside of Gland's Onstead; the Monk's Bum and its lower or middle lin, were all drawn on the side of that stream ; and his designs for the Washing Green and Habbie's How, afterwards aquatinted for the second scene of the drama, were also delineated from the howm on the Esk beside Newhall House — * Where lasses use to wash and spread their claiths ! '" 1 1 Gentle Shepherd, 1808. DAVID ALLAN. 1 33 His fame has been to some extent marred by the insipid repro- duction of his work by inferior engravers, but the satiric humour and drollery of his Rebuke Scene in a Country Church, a print much sought after by collectors, and others of his works, fully justify the character he enjoyed from Burns and others of his contemporaries, as a truthful delineator of Scottish character. In the correspondence of the poet, although they seem never to have met one another, there are frequent references to Allan's illustrations of the "Cotter's Saturday Night " and other of Burns's poems. In 1794, Mr Thomson writes to the poet that "Allan is much gratified by your good opinion of his talents. He has just begun a sketch from your ' Cotter's Saturday Night,' and if it pleaseth himself in the design, he will probably etch or engrave it. In subjects of the pastoral and humorous kind, he is perhaps unrivalled by any artist living. He fails a little in giving grace and beauty to his females, and his colouring is sombre, otherwise his paintings and drawings would be in greater request." In a subsequent letter, Burns, in returning one of Allan's illustrations to Thomson, suggests placing a stock and horn into the hands of the boy, instead of showing him knitting stockings, and acknow- ledges as the highest compliment he had ever received, Allan's choice of his favourite poem as a subject for illustration. In the same year he did a drawing illustrating Maggie Lauder, in which she is represented " dancing with such spirit as to electrify the piper, who seems almost dancing too, while he is playing with the most exquisite glee;" and in May 1795, ^^^ P^^^j ^^ acknowledging receipt of one of Allan's drawings, writes Thomson : " Ten thousand thanks for your elegant present. ... I have shown it to two or three judges of the first ability here, and they all agree with me in classing it as a first-rate production. My phiz is sae kenspeckle, that the very joiner's apprentice, whom Mrs Burns employed to break up the parcel, knew it at once. My most grateful comph- ments to Allan, who has honoured my rustic muse so much with his masterly pencil. One strange coincidence is, that the little one who is making the felonious attempt on the cat's tail is the ART IN SCOTLAND. most striking likeness of an ill-deedie, d — d, wee rumble-gairie urchin of mine, whom, for that propensity to witty wickedness and manfu' mischief, which, even at twa days auld, I foresaw would form the striking features of his disposition. . . . Several people think that Allan's likeness of me is more striking than Nasmyth's." Among his other etchings may be mentioned the plates illustrating the catalogue of gems, executed for his old fellow-student Tassie in London. During the time in which he remained in London, he exhibited at the Academy there in 1777 an Italian Shepherd Boy, a Nea- politan Girl, and a Family of the Island of Procida, which were sent from 23 Jermyn Street. He again to the same exhibition contri- buted, two years later, when he was living in Leicester Fields, Vestals attending the Sacred Fires, a Gentleman listening to a Lady playing at a Piano, and five drawings of the amusements, manners, &c., of the Carnival at Rome. In 1786 he was appointed successor to Runciman as master of the Trustees' Academy, and two years later got married to Miss Shirely Welsh, youngest daughter of Thomas Welsh, a retired carver and gilder in Edin- burgh, by whom he had five children, three dying in infancy. At this time he received pupils for drawing and painting in his own house, his terms for which were one guinea per month for three lessons in the week — a fee which at that time restricted his private classes to the most wealthy and fashionable students of art.^ After eight years of married life, on the 6th August 1796, he died of dropsy, preceded by an asthma caused by his sedentary life and close application, at the age of fifty-three. His only son was sent out a cadet to India in September 1806; his widow died at Musselburgh in 1821; and so lately as 1874, a monument executed by J. Hutchison, R.S.A., was erected to his memory in Edinburgh. In personal appearance he was under middle size, of slender feeble make, with pale, coarse, pock-pitted face, protrud- ing eyes, and fair hair. Although his manners as well as his personal appearance were mean and unprepossessing, he had a 1 Caledonian Mercury, November 1788. JAMES TASSIE. 1 35 lively, bright, active appearance when enlivened by company, and his conversation is said to have been characterised by much humour, benevolence, and observation. The ' Biographia Scotica ' adds that his private life was marked by the strictest honour and integrity, his manner gentle, unassuming, and obliging, and also that " he will be long remembered and his loss regretted by every one who enjoyed the happiness of his friendship." Carse's head of the artist looks like an inferior imitation of that of Hogarth, and the generally accepted word-portrait is not borne out by his own half-size full-length in the Scottish National Gallery, in which he is represented seated, rather tall-looking than otherwise. His portraits, among which is one of Tassie, are rather hard and stiff; and from an artistic point of view the highest praise that can be given to his subject-pictures is, that they were far superior to those of his contemporaries, and paved the way for Wilkie^ Fraser, Lizars, and others in that walk of art. The Newhall collection, besides the Foulis picture named, contained portraits of Raphael, and Perugino after Raphael ; an old friar's head, done in Italy, and a bhnd Edinburgh man led by a boy. Two red-chalk draw- ings of Cupids sporting, probably after Raphael, are still there. Besides David Allan, the only other notable artist emanating from the Foulises' academy was James Tassie, celebrated for his paste medallions and reproductions of engraved gems, and al- though not a painter, may properly be mentioned here. Along with the art of engraving gems and cameos, which began to be successfully practised in Britain about the middle of the eigh- teenth century, rose the art of taking impressions of antique specimens of such work in pastes of various compositions. The manufacture of imitation jewels was largely practised in medieval times, and even more remote periods ; and it has been discovered that some famous historical jewels, such as the emerald presented to the Abbey of Reichenau by Charlemagne, belong to this class. On the revival of the art of gem-engraving in Italy, the scarcity of precious stones caused the artists to invent substitutes, in which the celebrated Medici family took great interest, and 136 ART IN SCOTLAND. formed an extensive cabinet in Florence. In France, M. Hom- berg, a chemist, was employed by the Regent Due d'Orleans in making a paste and reproducing previously engraved gems. This composition, known as Orleans paste, was kept secret, and ulti- mately communicated to Mademoiselle Feloix, who was thus enabled to form a collection of about 2000 impressions. The art also was cultivated in Germany by the Prussian Baron Stosch, and in Italy by his servant Dehn, who both collected copies of cameos and intaglios in such substances as gypsum and red and black sulphur. Among the most successful repro- ducers was Liphert of Dresden, who applied to the purpose a composition consisting mainly of powdered alabaster. Joachim Smith preceded the better-known Burslem potters, Bently and Wedgwood, in creating a taste for these reproductions; and simultaneously James Tassie rose into reputation, not only as a reproducer, but also as a modeller of originals in the form chiefly of portraits.^ Tassie was born in PoUokshaws, a suburb of Glas- gow, in 1735, where he followed the trade of a stone-mason. He early conceived the idea of becoming an artist, and after his day's labours were over, travelled backwards and forwards fully three miles to learn something of art in the Foulises' school in the old College of Glasgow. His natural genius, and probably the connection indirectly with his trade, led him to practise art in a plastic form, and he soon developed a decided talent for model- ling. On ceasing his attendance at the Foulises' academy, he went to Dublin in search of employment in his trade, where he fortunately came in contact with a Dr Quin, who amused himself in his leisure hours by endeavouring to imitate precious stones in coloured paste, thus reproducing impressions from antique gems. The doctor found Tassie shrewd, persevering, and intelligent, and by their united efforts they succeeded in inventing a vitreous composition, in which they cast imitation gems, having previous- ly modelled them in wax. The method being perfected, Quin advised him to try his fortune in London with their mutual in- ^ Art Journal. JAMES TASSIE. 1 37 vention ; and accordingly Tassie went there about 1766, where he had a hard struggle as a modeller for several years. The main object he had in view in coming to London was to procure impressions of gems in cameo and intaglio for reproduction by his new method, but collections of such were at that time very limited in Britain : he had no means of obtaining access to such as existed, or introductions to their possessors, and besides, was diffident and modest to excess. He is mentioned in the ' Life of Wedgwood' as receiving several small payments for impressions in " sulfer," and one shilling and sixpence each for two " enam- melled impressions" supplied to Wedgwood and Bently. His quiet perseverance, however, ultimately overcame all the diffi- culties which lay before him : by degrees his skill became known, and collectors began to seek after his works in paste, glass, com- position, and sulphur, some of which the fashion of the time ap- propriated to bracelets and necklets, as well as setting in seals. In 1775 he pubHshed his first Catalogue of " Impressions in Sul- phur of Antique and Modern Gems, from which Pastes are made and sold by J. Tassie, Compton Street, second door from Greek Street, Soho." He very frequently exhibited both models and pastes in the Royal Academy. In 1769, from Great Newport Street, he sent to that exhibition two modelled portraits, and others in the following year. The first pastes which he exhibited there were two portraits in 1774. Everything within his reach in the form of coin, medal, or gem, he reproduced. He bestowed the most extreme care on his works, only issuing the most perfect impressions, the pastes of which, he stated in the preface to his Catalogue, were of the colour and lustre of the antique gems, and in which the merits of the originals were so perfectly preserved that the most eminent connoisseurs declared their heartiest com- mendation. So successful, indeed, were his imitations, that they have been fraudulently passed off on the Continent as real gems, while imitations of his reproductions have been sold as his work. He executed numerous small medallions in wax, for which he usually only required two sittings : these he afterwards repro- 1 3 8 ART IN SCOTLAND. duced in a paste of white alabaster, sometimes set on a dark vitreous ground among which have been preserved the best likenesses of Adam Smith, Dr Reid, and other eminent men. In 1 79 1 appeared his second Catalogue, entitled " A Descriptive Catalogue of a General Collection of Ancient and Modern En- graved Gems, Cameos, as well as Intaglios, taken from the most celebrated Cabinets in Europe, and cast in coloured Pastes, white Enamel, and Sulphur," in two quarto volumes, with plates by David Allan, written in English, and in French by Rudolph Eric Raspe. Facilities for access had by this time been afforded him, on account of his reputation, to the most important European collections, and about this date he executed a commission for the Empress of Russia, consisting of about 15,000 different repro- ductions.^ He died in 1799, and his business was carried on by his nephew WiUiam Tassie (born in London 1777), who added largely to his uncle's collection. William, who was also a good modeller, produced a popular medallion of William Pitt, which had an enormous sale, and was so successful that he was enabled to retire from the business, dying at South Kensington in i860. The fashion for these had already begun to die away, and the business, which had been latterly carried on in partnership with a Mr Vernon, ended about 1850, by which time all demand seems to have ceased. Mr Vernon having also died, a few years ago the contents of his house in Bedfordshire were sold, including an enormous mass of the reproductions of all kinds, which fell into the possession of a chance bidder for a comparatively small sum, but were almost entirely soon afterwards repurchased by a well- known dealer. 2 William Tassie exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1798, 1800, and 1804. He bequeathed to the Scottish National Gallery the original casts of the collection of gems made by his uncle and himself, the original moulds of all his Egyptian, Greek, and Roman coins and medals, and casts of modern medals. The 1 Mr L. G. Robinson in Art Journal, 1881. 2 Besides modelling himself, he employed several of the best gem -engravers, such as Marchant, Burch, and Charles and William Brown. WILLIAM TASSIE. 1 39 value of the bequest was much enhanced by its including thirty- six casts of portraits of distinguished individuals, among which are those of David Allan, Dugald Stewart, Henry Raeburn, John Hunter, and two of James Tassie ; numerous water-colour studies of old Dutch and Flemish pictures ; and a miniature of George Sanders the artist.^ ^ Chambers's Biographical Dictionary ; Scottish National Gallery Catalogue, &c., &c. I4C CHAPTER VIIL Edinburgh Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Sciences, and Manufactures — The Board of Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh, It was during the interval between his first visit to Rome and his permanent settlement in London that Allan Ramsay, along with some of the leading men in Edinburgh, formed themselves into a small literary coterie, known as the Select Society, which exercised some influence in its way. Along with the painter, David Hume seems to have been a leading spirit; and after Ramsay went to London, we find Hume writing him regarding this Society in 1755 — "What chiefly renders us considerable is a project of engrafting on the Society a scheme for the encour- agement of Art and Science and Manufactures in Scotland, by premiums, partly honorary and partly lucrative. A box is opened for donations, and about 100 guineas have been given in. We hear of considerable sums intended by Lords Hopetoun, Morton, Marchmont, &c., who desire to be members. Nine managers have been chosen, and to keep the business distinct from our reasoning, the first Monday of every month is set apart for these transactions, and they are never to be mentioned in our Wednes- day meetings. Advertisements have been published to inform the public of our intention. A premium, I remember, is promised to the best discourse on taste and the principles of vegetation. This regards the belles lettres and the sciences, but we have not neglected porter, strong ales, and wrought rufiies, even down to linen rags." The scheme thus introduced, and which included a THE EDINBURGH SOCIETY. 141 long list of the most curious subjects for competition, was adver- tised as " a Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Sciences, Manufactures, and Agriculture," and the list of managers is headed by the name of the Duke of Hamilton, followed by other noble- men and gentlemen. Among the premiums offered were medals and prizes of from two to five guineas for drawings of fruits, foliage, or flowers, limited to competition by boys or girls under sixteen years of age. In the first awards thus made in 1756, a gold medal was given to James Alves of Inverness, " now abroad to improve in painting";^ three guineas for the second best to William Jamieson of Kilmarnock ; and two guineas for third best to George Willison and Thomas Donaldson of Edinburgh, the second -last mentioned of whom rose to some eminence as a portrait-painter after the usual visit to Rome, and died in India. In the advertisement of that year it is intimated that "contribu- tions and subscriptions to the Society's funds are received by Mr Andrew Fairholm, banker, their treasurer, and subscription papers are lodged in shops and in the clerks' offices of every county and royal borough in Scotland." The funds of the Society being in this manner augmented, the scheme was widened, and in the following year design was included, a branch of art then at its very lowest ebb in Scotland. The result of this section of the competition in 1757 stands as follows: "For best drawing of flowers, &c., by boys or girls under fifteen from copies, three guineas — no drawing of sufficient merit produced : for similar draw- ings from nature, by boys or girls under fifteen, five guineas — no drawings of sufficient merit produced : for best landscape from pictures or drawings, by boys or girls under eighteen, three guineas, to Thomas Donaldson in Edinburgh : for best drawing copied wherein the Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian orders with their proper ornaments are introduced, by boys or girls under eighteen, four guineas — no drawing of sufficient merit produced : for the best draw- ^ The name of James Alves, London, appears as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy in 1774, of Vertumnus discovering herself to Pomona, and a subject from the ' Tatler '; and in 1779, of two crayon portraits. 142 ART IN SCOTLAND. ing of any busto, statue, or bas-relieve, by boys or girls under twenty, a five-guinea piece of William and Mary, given by Lieut. - Colonel Oughton, to Richard Cooper, junior, Edinburgh." ^ A note is added to this part of the report stating that certain prizes had been given for drawings of a bust, picture, and bas-relief which did not fulfil the conditions of the competition, and also inform- ing the public "that the progress made in several branches of drawing since last year is very considerable." In the following year, 1758, the premiums for drawing from the round fell to three previously successful competitors — in fact, for the three successive years there only appear some five names, showing the limited number of competitors : in this year's competition it is somewhat remark- able that out of eight premiums ofi"ered of two and three guineas, for simple drawings and designs for damask linen, Scotch carpets, and flowered lawn, no drawings of sufficient merit were produced, and in design especially, not a single specimen was put in for competition for these at that time considerable prizes. In 1759, probably in consequence of this absence of competitors, only one prize was off"ered for design, and the others for drawing were carried off" by the successful competitors of the preceding years, after which there seems to be no traces whatever of this Society, excepting an obscure notice in the year 1761, in which it is mentioned that the " Select Society " were still holding their meet- ings, but now converted into a Society for Promoting the Reading and Speaking of the English Language in Scotland. ^ This Association, known as the Edinburgh Society, is often con- founded with the honourable Board of Trustees for Manufactures in Scotland, which had its origin at the period of the union of the two kingdoms. Previous to this time some attention had been directed towards the development of the industries of Scotland, especially in regard to linen-weaving, carpet manufactures, &c., which had been more extensively introduced into Scotland by the 1 Probably son of the engraver. 2 Scots Magazine, 1756-61. The well-known "Poker" Club, instituted in 1762, was formed by most of the members of the Select Society. THE TRUSTEES' ACADEMY. 143 immigration of the French Protestants into this country as well as the sister kingdoms ; and for the accommodation of the foreign weavers, the magistrates of Edinburgh had caused cottages and workshops to be built on a piece of vacant land close to the city, where Picardy Place now stands — hence its name, most of the weavers having come from Picardy. With a view of still further developing such industries as well as improving them, by the " Act concerning the Public Debt " in the Treaty of Union, it was agreed that a sum of money known as the " equivalent " should be paid to Scotland, in compensation for its new burthen in the form of its share of the national debt. The sum appointed to be paid amounted to ;^385,ooo, and among the various allowances payable out of this sum, such as the losses sustained by private individuals by reducing the coin of Scotland to the standard and value of that of England, payment of the debts of the African and Indian Trading Company, &c., a payment of ;£2ooo per annum for " the space of sevine years," was to be employed to- wards " incouradgeing and promoteing the manufacture of coarse wool within those shyres which produce the wool;" ^ the " surplus," after other payments, to be applied towards other purposes con- sequent on the Union. Subsequently it was provided that this payment should be in perpetuity; and on the establishment of a separate Fishery Board in 1809, it was appropriated to the School of Design, National Gallery, and Museum of Antiquities. This money was placed at the disposal of a Board of Trustees ; the " surplus " was also to an extent available for similar purposes ; ^ and to the same board of twenty-one gentlemen ^ was also further intrusted a portion of the funds realised by the sale of the estates forfeited in the Rebellion of 1745. The object of the last-men- tioned fund was definitely for the purpose of establishing an Academy of Design in order to promote a taste among the work- men and youth of both sexes in Scotland, hence known as the ^ Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, vol. xi. p. 490. 2 Ibid., Appendix, p. 203. ^ Increased in 1809 to twenty-eight. 144 ART IN SCOTLAND. Trustees' Academy. It has been sometimes doubted whether the national cultivation of art was benefited in the best possible way by the constitution of this board as directors of an Academy of Design, and with some justice. A body of noblemen and gentle- men were perhaps more unlikely then, even than at the present day, to understand the details of the administration intrusted to them. They very probably presumed that as the art was required to be taught in Scotland, no Scotch native could be qualified to convey the instruction ; and it has been argued, from the fact that the first two masters being foreigners, there were no native artists at that time in Scotland capable of fulfilling the duties. Facts, however, prove quite the reverse. The indenture of the Academy of St Luke, previously referred to, was signed by eighteen artists, some of whom, such as Cooper, Alexander, and Norrie, are known to have been quite capable. This was thirty years before the Trustees' Academy was projected ; and as only about thirty artists combined at Hogarth's suggestion to get up the Academy in London, eighteen was a fair proportion in Edinburgh for the purpose intended. Had such a man as John Graham, who was appointed to the mastership forty years later, been available and allowed the full control of the Academy at its institution, there can be little doubt but that Scottish art would have been matured by at least half a century. The classes in the Trustees' Academy were opened in 1760, in a room in the Edinburgh College, the hours of study being at first limited to from 10 till 12 in the forenoon, these being then supposed the least likely to interfere with the time of workmen, for whom the Academy was then exclusively intended. An evening class was subsequently opened, at what period is unknown. The first master appointed was William Delacour, a French artist previously settled in Edinburgh, who had been much employed by the Jacobites as a portrait-painter, besides having a reputation for painting fancy subjects somewhat in the style of Watteau, and landscapes, a style of decoration on which he was sometimes employed for the interiors of mansions. At his death in 1767 (or THE TRUSTEES' ACADEMY. 145 1768) he was succeeded by another Frenchman of the name of Pavilion, who like his predecessor seems to have done nothing beyond teaching the merest rudiments of the art of drawing, such as were required by house-painters, pattern-makers, and others of that class. The small salary attached to the office of master, the few students attending — limited to twenty, who were instructed gratis ^ — and the appreciation of art in design as well as in painting ' hardly existing at that time in Scotland, only induced a dead-alive kind of study, if it could be called study at all. This could hardly be expected to awaken into life under the flighty enthusiasm of Alexander Runciman, who succeeded Pavilion about the year 1771, at the salary of ;^i2o per annum — although an additional room was granted for the accommodation of the class, and ;£"i5 yearly of premiums offered by the Trustees.^ Runciman, who could hardly have been expected to find the nature of the work very much in accordance with his taste and aspirations, was succeeded at his death in 1785 by David Alla^, who held the office till 1796 ; but if either of these artists imbued their students with any of their own enthusiasm, or imparted any- thing of their own skill, the too short time allowed for practice, the want of proper and sufficient examples to draw from, and the class of students under their instruction, must have rendered any artistic development impossible. With perhaps one exception, no artist of future eminence seems up till this time to have benefited by the Academy. This exception was Alexander Nasmyth, who drew in the evening class for a short time under Runciman, and seems very soon to have exhausted the possible study of the few casts of any merit contained in the Academy. Among the models was a small group of the Laocoon, which Nasmyth had been set to copy over and over again from difi"erent points of view. On finishing his sixth drawing from this group, sick of the subject, he ^ Attendance was limited to four years. Arnot's History of Edinburgh, 1788. See also Proceedings of Scottish Antiquaries, "Missing Academy," vol. viii. 2 Proceedings of Scottish Antiquaries, ** Missing Academy," vol. viii. Re- sults unknown, as books all gone. K I40^^^^^^^' ART IN SCOTLAND. begged Runciman to let him have a new one — probably rather a difficult request to comply with. " I'll give you a new subject," said Runciman rather angrily, and turning the group upside down, told him to copy that. Nasmyth had no alternative but to do as he was told, and produced a drawing of the group which so pleased his master that he had it framed. It hung up in the class-room for a long time, with a memorandum attached detailing the cir- cumstance.^ On the death of David Allan the class was put under the charge of John Wood. This teacher, however, only held the appoint- ment for about one year, owing to the Board of Trustees having appointed him on the faith of drawings which he had submitted with his application for the position, and which were subsequently discovered not to have been executed by himself. Wood having been dismissed, more care was exercised in the selection of a successor, and in 1798, out of some nine or ten artists submitting specimens of their work, the board were fortunate in securing the services of John Graham, who held the appointment till 181 7. From the time of Graham's appointment, the Academy entered into a new era of its existence, and first assumed a proper position as a place for art education. In addition to artistic talent of a high order, he possessed a power of communicating his knowledge and enthusiasm, a kindly interest in his pupils, and sufficient spirit to develop the study of art in its higher departments, in spite of the narrow opposition openly expressed by several of the citizens, who were so blind as to be unable to see how the minor art of design could be thus advanced. Money-prizes for drawing had been given hitherto, and to these were now added premiums for oil-painting, which was for the first time introduced. A growing appreciation of art began to assert itself, and the ardent-minded Graham soon drew around him many pupils, some of whose names subsequently became the brightest in the roll of Scottish artists. Under his direction, in the Academy there studied for several years Sir William Allan, Sir David Wilkie, Sir J. W. Gordon, 1 Autobiography of James Nasmyth. THE TRUSTEES' ACADEMY. I47 and many others, who never mentioned his name but with the most grateful respect. As whatever books and registers of the Academy formerly existed were lost or destroyed early in the present century, of the various details of the Academy, as well as the subjects of the com- petitions in oil-painting, no records now remain beyond what have been mentioned in the written lives of the artists or preserved by other means. From these we learn that the first subject for com- petition in painting was from the tragedy of "Macbeth," the competitors being allowed to choose their own subjects from the play. The premium on this occasion was awarded to a young artist named David Thomson, who died in his youth in 18 15, a landscape-painter of flashy execution, the award having been made not without some suspicion of unfairness, he being a brother of the secretary. The premium of 1803, however, fell to one whose future career fulfilled his early promise, when Wilkie gained ^^lo for his picture of Calisto in the Bath of Diana. The subjects chosen for competition were selected from poetry and history ; and curiously enough, with the exception of " Macbeth," the picturesque incidents of Scottish history and the works of the early Scottish poets seem never to have suggested themselves as sources for illus- tration. The scheme of the Academy was otherwise further extended under Graham's management, and additional classes were opened,^ as little good could be expected to result from short attendances in the evenings, and at a class meeting at an incon- venient time of the day for those otherwise occupied. A collec- tion of good casts from the antique was commenced by Graham ; "the examples of fruit, flowers, and grotesque ornaments, which had hitherto been the only models set before the students, were banished for ever from the Academy ; " and the Board adopted a more liberal system than they had hitherto done in its man- agement. ^ ^ It was probably at this time that the Academy moved to Picardy Place, where David Scott refers to it in 182 1. 2 Patrick Gibson, 181 6. 148 ART IN SCOTLA^'d. After the death of Graham, from 18 18 the Academy was ably and worthily conducted by Andrew Wilson, who brought to his task the cultivated taste of a travelled artist, an intimate knowledge of the works of the great masters, and a wide theoretical as well as practical knowledge of his art, having spent many years abroad collecting pictures, &c., for public and private galleries. He resigned his appointment as professor of drawing at the Military College of Sandhurst on being appointed director of the Academy, and held that post till 1826, when he removed to Italy with his wife and family. During the seven or eight years he occupied the position, he had many pupils who subsequently rose to eminence in their profession, among whom were Robert Scott Lauder, D. O. Hill, and WilUam Simson.^ The period was a troublous one for art in Edinburgh, owing to the action of the body of noblemen and gentlemen forming the Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts, founded in 1 81 9, which at first refused to recognise any contemporary art in its exhibitions, or any artist in the directorate during its existence. The leading members of this institution were also connected with the Board of Trustees who controlled the Academy, and from a surplus of the grant of ;£2ooo per annum, had by this time accu- mulated sufficient to build the Royal Institution on the Mound for their own exhibitions, and in which rooms were provided for the use of the Trustees' Academy, the collection of casts commenced by Graham having been considerably augmented by Andrew Wilson. The * Scots Magazine' of this year (1826) contains an article on a new Drawing Institution projected in Edinburgh, in which no names are mentioned, and which was probably a part of the scheme contemplated by the artists then uniting for establish- ing what afterwards became the Royal Scottish Academy. This article speaks rather slightingly of what was being done by the Trustees' Academy; and while throwing cold water on the proposed Drawing Institution, hints that the Royal Institution on the Mound 1 David Roberts is claimed as a pupil of Andrew Wilson, but he only attended one week and was dissatisfied. THE TRUSTEES' ACADEMY. 1 49 might more easily supply any desideratum which existed regarding higher art education, suggesting at the same time that a school for sculpture should be added. On Andrew Wilson's resignation in 1826, William Allan was appointed his successor. This eminent artist had been settled in Edinburgh for about twelve or thirteen years after returning from his adventurous wanderings among Tartars, Turks, and Russians, and was the first of the professors of the Academy to inculcate a love of Scottish history among his students, thus giving an impetus to the historic branch of his art, so well illustrated by himself and his students, the most notable of whom were Thomas Duncan, Sir George Harvey, and J. A. Houston. About 1827-28 a number of artists, including David Scott, petitioned the Board of Trustees to open their gallery for study during the mornings. This was acceded to, and permission given to draw from seven till nine on Saturday mornings, and on four mornings in the week during the vacation months. Two or three years later, another request was addressed to the secretary for further liberty of attendance with less interruption. This was also acceded to, but only to the seven artists who had signed the application, and under certain restric- tions. The restrictions were, that the casts should not be moved, a fine to be imposed for non-attendance, and the artists to pay the keeper for his extra work. The two first of these were annulled, each student paid his half-guinea to Smith the keeper, and thus further facilities were for a short time enjoyed.^ The Academy had now assumed some considerable importance, as, in addition to the director, other masters were appointed. Thomas Duncan was at an early age put in charge of a class for colour, and afterwards of that for drawing ; while Charles Heath Wilson, the son of Andrew Wilson, was about 1837 appointed to a class for the study of ornament and design, separate from and independent of William AUan.^ Allan was about this time elected President of the Royal Scottish Academy when it received its ^ David Scott's Memoirs. 2 Personally communicated by Mr J. Mossman, H.R.S.A., a student. 150 ' ART IN SCOTLAND. charter (1838), and during his term of office, from 1837, William Dyce was head-master for about eighteen months; after which the latter went to London, having been selected to act as superin- tendent and secretary to the recently established School of Design at Somerset House. It was during WiUiam Allan's term of office that life classes were first introduced, under the auspices of the Royal Institution.^ This was in 1832, prior to which, for nearly five years, one had been in operation, held by David Scott, Daniel Macnee, and other eight artists. The Scottish Academy, which by dint of persevering effort had now attained its position, held a life class in the evenings from eight till ten o'clock, so that enthusiastic students could also attend the Trustees' class, which met for two hours at six o'clock. Among the other efforts by the Board, some feeble attempts, probably not very well directed, were made towards the introduction of technical education. One of the students, still living, speaks of an old man who was sometimes seen coming into the rooms to teach the mysteries of the weaver's craft, receiving a salary for the instruction of two or three pupils. ^ Sir William Allan finally retired from the management of the Academy early in 1844, on the i8th July of which year the secre- tary writes to David Scott that the Board " have incorporated the chair of the class for drawing from the antique with that for the theory and practice of colour, and appointed Mr Duncan, who filled the latter, to be head-master or director over the whole establishment, with the assistance of Mr W. Crawford and Mr J. Ballantyne as preceptors under him." Duncan died in the follow- ing year, and was succeeded by George Christie, who had assisted the former for about two years. An interesting memento of Christie's management, which terminated in 1850, is preserved in the Scottish National Gallery, consisting of figures of saints designed by him, and painted on a gold ground in the Byzantine manner by his pupils Thomas Faed and John Macdonald. ^ David Scott's Memoirs. Presumably in the Trustees' Academy, as the members of the Board of Trustees and the Royal Institution were identical. a Mr John Mossman, H.R.S.A. THE TRUSTEES' ACADEMY. 151 The following statement, published in 1845,1 gives an idea of the work being done by the Academy : " It now consists of one class for the study of drawing from the ancient statues, under one master ; a class for the study of pictorial colouring under another master ; a life academy under the especial care of the head-master ; a school for instructing pupils in all the various departments of ornamental design, both in form and colour, including architecture, geometry, perspective, modelling, fresco and encaustic painting, &c., divided into classes and under the superintendence of one master and an assistant ; to all which is added a course of lectures on pictorial anatomy. The number of pupils is at present about 130, all of whom receive instruction gratis. Candidates are at first admitted as probationers for three months, during which period the Board is enabled to ascertain whether their talents are such as to warrant their continuance; and if so, to determine to what department they shall be attached. Prizes are awarded and there are annual exhibitions of their works. The sculpture gallery contains casts of the Elgin Marbles, the Ghiberti gates, and Greek and Roman busts ; the latter collection having been made at Rome by the Alborini family, from whom they were pur- chased for this gallery." The course of lectures on pictorial anatomy referred to were given by Dr James Miller, the introduc- tory one of which was published at the request of the Board of Trustees in 1842 ; but to any one conversant with the practice of art education, it must be admitted that some colouring must be eliminated from the above extract. In this year, 1845, the staff of teachers stood as follows : Director — Alexander Christie ; Master of antique, life, and colour classes — John Ballantyne ; Assistant — William Crawford; Lecturer on anatomy — Professor Miller; Master of architectural, ornamental, and fresco classes — Alex. Christie ; Assistant — Silas Rice ; Curator of picture - galleries — James Graham (with two assistants). In the year 1850, Robert Scott Lauder was appointed head- master, having previously acted in the capacity of assistant to Sir ^ Statistical Account of Scotland, 1845. ART IN SCOTLAND. William Allan. Among the pupils of this gifted artist were many who worthily represent their native art in the present day — notably W. Q. Orchardson, John M'Whirter, William M'Taggart, the Burrs, John Pettie, Peter Graham, Hugh Cameron, to which must be added the names of the lamented George Paul Chalmers, and the still more recent Robert Herdman, two of the most accom- plished representatives of the Scottish School of Art. The arts of modelling flowers and wood-carving had just lately been introduced ; and the distinctive character of the Trustees' Academy ceased in 1858, when it was affiliated with the Art Department of South Kensington, as one of the Government Schools of Design taking root all over the country. This import- ant change led to the limitation of its education as a school of art. " My Lords of the Treasury, after consulting the best author- ities," concluded that the line should be drawn where the study of the antique finishes and that of the life begins. The life class was therefore placed under the control of the Scottish Academy for the training of artists, an arrangement which the Art Depart- ment in London has since tried to overturn, so as to bring all the classes under its control. In closing this account of the Trustees' Academy, it may be not out of place to quote some remarks made by the distinguished Sir J. Noel Paton at the meeting of the students and managers in 1876. In the course of his address. Sir Noel remarked that this Academy was the prototype of all the schools in these kingdoms destined for the art education of the people in connection with national manufactures. " It was the first school where a collection of casts from the remains of classic and medieval art was brought together as the basis of such education, and where artist and artisan might sit down side by side and draw from a common model : the first school, also, which offered art education to the sex which now forms so large and distinguished a section of the students attending Government schools of art, — having been in active operation, stimulating the arts of design in Scotland, and giving great names to British art for generations before the wide- THE TRUSTEES' ACADEMY. 1 53 Stretching Briareus of South Kensington came into existence. If the Edinburgh School of Art, since its affiliation, has necessarily been conducted on the South Kensington system, we might soothe our national vanity with the recollection that that system was admittedly foreshadowed, in all its best features, so far back as 1837, in the comprehensive and far-seeing letter addressed to the Board of Trustees by William Dyce and C. Heath Wilson, both alumni of this institution. Whether the affiliation to South Ken- sington had exercised, or was likely in the long-run to exercise, a salutary influence on our national School of Art, was a question he was not called on to discuss; but his conviction was, that the distinctive characteristics of every national school were the natural outcome of the essential characteristics of the people in whose midst it had sprung, and that as such they were worthy of preser- vation as a source of strength, not of weakness." 154 CHAPTER IX. Late eighteenth-century painters — Gavin Hamilton — yacob More — Cunningham — Alexander and John Rtmciman — John Donaldson — David Martin — George Willison — Archibald Skirving — John Brown — Willia?H Robinson — Sir George Chalmers — Mrs Blackwell, During much of the time in which the printers of Glasgow were endeavouring to foster the cultivation of art at home to the detri- ment of their business, Gavin Hamilton was occupying a very prominent position as an artist at Rome. He was one of the most distinguished of the early Scottish artists, and was descended from the ancient Hamiltons of Murdieston in Lanarkshire, thus being connected with the ducal house of that name.^ Of his early study in this country nothing seems to be known. He set out for Italy before he had reached the age of manhood, and studied under Augustini Mosucchi at Rome, for which city he contracted such an affection that his country saw no more of him than an occasional visit, caused by a lingering and recurring desire to settle in his native Lanarkshire — an intention always abandoned on experiencing the contrast of the climate of Scotland with that of Italy. On one of these visits he had actually given orders for building a studio in Lanark ; but in addition to the un- congenial climate, it is probable that he saw no signs of encourage- ment or appreciation of art in any other form than portrait-painting, while he was steeped to the eyes in classical and ancient art. During one or two of these visits he executed several portraits, ^ Nearly related, says the writer of Peter's Letters. GAVIN HAMILTON. 1 55 including two stately full-lengths of the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton, the latter with a greyhound, reproduced in a once popular engraving. He had also commenced another portrait of the Duchess, formerly the celebrated beauty Miss Gunning, in which the likeness was so successfully caught at the first sitting that the Duke would not permit him to carry it any further.^ The same collection includes a canvas containing portraits of the Duke, Dr John Moore and his son, afterwards Sir John Moore, half- lengths, the latter sitting. At Newhall House was a girl's head, with a fur tippet round her neck, probably a family portrait. His greatest works, however, were a series of pictures from the 'Iliad,' which have been dispersed into different parts of Europe, and can now only be seen together in the engravings by Cunego, executed under his own supervision, as indeed all his other engraved works were. In 1770 he exhibited, at the Royal Academy, Agrippina weeping over the Ashes of Germanicus, and the Heralds leading Briseis from the Tent of Achilles; followed in 1776 by Mary Queen of Scots resigning her Crown, and a Hygseia in 1788.^ Of the Homeric series only two or three came to Britain — the Hector and Andromache passing into the Hamilton Palace collection, and the Achilles dragging the Body of Hector into that of the Duke of Bedford. In connection with the latter picture, it is related that the Marquis of Tavistock, the young heir to the Duke, having fallen from his horse, was killed by being dragged along the ground by his startled steed, his foot having got entangled in the stirrup. The bereaved father, who could not endure to have beside him a picture the subject of which so vividly recalled the cause of his son's death, sold it to General Scott for a moderate sum. Another of Hamilton's pictures, the Death of Lucretia, came into the posses- sion of the Earl of Hopetoun. For the Prince Borghese he deco- rated a saloon in his villa with a series of compartments, in the ceiling and alcoves of which was represented the story of Paris. His style of art is distinguished by a severe classic convention- 1 Not now in the Hamilton Palace collection. ^ Royal Academy Catalogues. 156 ART IN SCOTLAND. alism, violent action, rather dramatic expression, leaden and monotonous in colour. But for the unfortunate tone of his colour he might have surpassed all his Italian contemporaries. This defect in his work is said to have been partly induced by the want of a proper guide while pursuing his Roman studies, possibly accentu- ated by his veneration for the antique severity, and more apparent when so many were painting on a scale of artificial brilliancy. Aware of this himself, he endeavoured as far as possible to over- come it, but could not paint nature otherwise than as he saw it — a declaration which he is said to have made with tears in his eyes on overhearing the remarks of some friends in his studio.^ Like the French David, he was carried away by the movement then taking place at Rome, where Canova was endeavouring to reform the art of sculpture, and Raphael Mengs by his painting and criticism was making efforts to revive the style of his great name- sake of Urbino. But though thus deficient in one of the greatest qualities neces- sary to success as a painter, he rendered the most valuable services to art. Although almost unknown in his own country, he was flattered by the Continental critics ; Voltaire and Metastasio were lavish in his praise, and he is said to have been copied by Mengs.^ When the young Canova left his native village of Possagno amidst the Asolani hills in the Venetian Alps, and showed his works for the first time in the house of the Venetian ambassador at Rome, the Scottish painter was the first who gave him outspoken praise, exciting his ambition, and at the same time predicting the future greatness of the young sculptor. A close friendship sprang up between the two artists, and Canova was always pleased to acknowledge, in terms of grateful remembrance, the kind encourage- ment and counsel which Hamilton afforded him in the difficulties of his early career.^ In his " Schola Italica Pictura," engraved by Cunego, forming ^ Cavaliere M. A. Migliarini, 1863. 2 Blackwood's Magazine, December 1817. * Count Cigonara's Memoir of Canova. GAVIN HAMILTON. 1 57 part of the collection of Piranesi, and published at Rome in 1773, he traces the progress of the styles of painting in Italy from Leonardo da Vinci to the time of the Caracci. This was done partly with a view to assist the rising generation of artists, and the forty drawings which were made by himself were engraved under his close personal supervision. He is perhaps, however, most distinguished by the services which he has rendered to the progress of the fine arts, in having brought to light many of the buried treasures of antiquity, to which he mainly devoted the latter part of his life. With the permission of the Papal Government, obtained about 1770, in conjunction with Mr James Byres, architect, and Mr Thomas Jenkins, an English banker at Rome, he made excavations and opened buried chambers in various places in the Roman States. In the course of this work he made numerous very valuable finds in the Tor Columbaro, at Albani, Velletri, Ostia, and Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli. Among the ruins of ancient Gabii he discovered a Diana, Germanicus, Pan, sev- eral rich columns of Verd-antique and Marino fiortio, busts, &c. ; besides the old frescoes there, which owe their preservation to his care, and which are said to surpass the others found in Italy. The treasures which he thus found among the rubbish and substructures of the old city of Gabii, were purchased by the Prince Borghese, to whom as lord of the soil one-third of the booty belonged, and who erected a classic edifice for their accommodation, the museum Gabinium, in a grove near his villa.^ So successful was Hamilton in this direction, that the superstitious Romans circulated a report that he had sold his soul to the devil, in consideration of which his Satanic majesty had undertaken to point out by the hopping of a blue flame, the exact spots under which the works of ancient art were buried. At the time in which Hamilton was engaged in the excavations at Palestrina, the opulent Duke of Braschi, a nepote of the Pope, was collecting antiques for his recently finished palace, regardless of expense. He had previously commissioned Hamilton to find ^ Article in Blackwood's Magazine, attributed to Mathisson. 158 ART IN SCOTLAND. a colossal statue as an indispensable item in his collection. The discovery of a colossal Antinous was happily timed, and the Duke unhesitatingly gave him the price of 9000 scudi, which was re- ceived with the assurance that, to any other than a nepote of the Holy Father, the price would have been doubled. It is said that on the discovery of this fine work of art the enthusiasm of the cognoscenti and others at Rome was so great that its praises were sung in sonetti and canzone ; while Visconti pronounced it the finest statue which had hitherto been discovered of the so often and so variously sculptured favourite of Adrian.^ Many of the best collections in Germany, Russia, and England, inclusive of the Townley portion of the British Museum, have been enriched by his discoveries, and his contributions in statues, busts, and bas- reliefs in the Museo-Pio-Clementino rank second only to the famed treasures of the Belvidere. He was the first Scottish artist who gained the gold medal of the Academy of St Luke at Rome, where he maintained his studio in much of the dignity and state of the great old Italian masters, and in which he was always ready to receive and advise budding Raphaels with introductory letters from his own country. Almost unknown as he was in Scotland, rumours of his greatness in Rome must no doubt have excited the ambition of the rising generation of artists in his own land to follow his example. That he was not totally unrecognised, we have evidence in the fact that he was elected a corresponding member of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries on the 6th November 1781, and his name appears with that of Jacob More as one of the associated artists of that institution.^ He was a man of great benevolence and liberality of character, and his death, which occurred in 1797,^ is said to have resulted from extreme anxiety for the safety of the art treasures of Rome during the French occupation. His bust in marble, executed after death, is in the picture-gallery of the Hunterian Museum of Glasgow University. ^ Sketches of Italy and the Italians — Blackwood's Magazine, 1829. 2 Transactions, published 1792. ^ Bryan erroneously, 1775-76. JACOB MORE. 159 Another distinguished Scottish artist practising in Italy, and contemporaneous with Hamilton, was Jacob More, born in Edin- burgh about 1740. He is one of those artists who rose from obscurity, having served an apprenticeship to some mechanical trade, at the expiry of which he entered into a second apprentice- ship, this time with Norrie, the Edinburgh painter and decorator already mentioned. Here he learned something of the art of land- scape-painting, more especially from Alexander Runciman, his junior in years, who was also in Norrie's service, and then an enthusiast in that branch of art. About 1770 or 1773 he was enabled to go to Italy, mainly by the patronage of Mr Alexander, a banker in Edinburgh, and Chief Baron Montgomery, where he rapidly assumed a position as a landscape-painter, and was visited by Goethe in 1787, who was attracted by his works.^ He seems to have waited some time in London, as it is mentioned that Sir Joshua Reynolds on seeing his works was so much pleased with them that he gave him an order for several pictures, and with the liberality which at all times marked the character of that great artist, warmly recommended him to some of the nobility, by whom he was afterwards patronised. ^ From Rome, in 1783, he sent to the Royal Academy in London a View of the Cascade at Terni, and a View of the Campania from Tivoli with Maecenas's Villa and the' Cascatella ; in the following year the name of Moore, a form in which it was sometimes spelled, is in the same exhibition attached to the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in which the elder Pliny lost his life; in 1785, to the same exhibition he contributed a Landscape Composition, and Castle Gandolfo; in 1786, a View on the Coast of Sicily, and another of the Campagna of Rome; in 1788, the Deluge, and an Eruption of Mount Vesuvius with the Story of the Pious Brothers of Catania; and in 1789, a Moonlight, and View near Rome, — all contributed from that city.^ Sometime later he painted a large view of Rome as seen from the Capitol, for Prince Augustus of ^ Professor Veitch's Feeling for Nature in Scottish Poetry. 2 Cririe's Scottish Scenery, 1803. 3 Royal Academy Catalogues. l60 ART IN SCOTLAND. Britain, and about the same time several of his pictures passed into the collections of the Earl of Bristol, Sir John Stuart of Allanbank, and Thomas Wharton. In Cririe's 'Scottish Scenery, ' ^ George Walker, an artist and teacher of art in Edin- burgh, is mentioned as having in his possession, presumably for sale, the Falls of Tivoli, Falls of Clyde, a Storm, Sun-setting, &c. The then possessor of these pictures states that for his smallest paintings More received thirty-five guineas, eighty for those of a middling size, and a hundred and twenty guineas for each of the largest — adding, probably with a view to enhancing the value of his own possessions, "they are now invaluable," More having previously died. The Newhall House list of pictures included two sketches out of his usual line — a Hermit reading in a Cave, and Silenus drinking from a Cup held by a Satyr ; besides two land- scapes, described as " an old tree hung with ivy on the foreground, a cave on the right, a white modern mansion with a tower under a shower of rain beyond it, without figures," and " a seaport with a high tower in the foreground." ^ After his death, John Land- seer engraved in 1795 twenty views by More of the south of Scotland.^ In Italy, More is principally known by having been, after Hamilton, employed in decorating one of the apartments of the magnificent villa of the Prince Borghese, near the Porta Pinciano, which he enriched by paintings of landscape, described as being distinguished by a considerable degree of classic feeling, with much of the taste, character, and even handling of Richard Wilson. He is also credited with having laid out the gardens of the same villa. Between 1752 and 1755, it is said he read before a literary society, which met in the College of Glasgow, three essays, printed by Foulis in 1759. These were on the " Influence of Philosophy on the Fine Arts," the "Composition of the Picture described in the Dialogue of Cebes," and " Historical Composition." " On the ist October 1793, Jacob More breathed his last at Rome, sincerely lamented by all the lovers of the fine arts — indeed by all who had the honour 1 1803. 2 Gentle Shepherd, 1808. » Professor Veitch. CHARLES CUNNINGHAM. l6l and happiness of his acquaintance " ^ — having succumbed to an attack of fever. He left considerable property to his relatives. There is some reason for assuming that More made a visit to Edinburgh during his residence at Rome, as his name appears on the register of the Cape Club, along with other notable men of talent, including those of Norrie, Alexander Runciman, and Henry Raeburn. The Cape Club was one of the most celebrated existing in Edinburgh during the early prevalence of high-jinks, and as- sociated its name with the custom of the president or sovereign of the club, who wore a decorated cape : he knighted his vassals by using a poker instead of a sword, dubbing the members at the same time with fanciful names. It was probably the same club as " the Poker" which David Hume attended in 1763, continuing for some years after the death of Hume in 1776, and which met in Fortune's Tavern every Friday, with no other object, so far as we know, than the consumption of claret. As More seems to have left Scotland not later than 1773, and his name appears at about the same time as that of Raeburn as a member, it is not likely that the latter, who would then be only seventeen years old, would be placed on its register at that age. An artist who is only known in his native country by the obscure preservation of his name as a Scotchman was Charles Cunningham, who on account of indications of talent was sent by his friends to Rome, where he studied under Raphael Mengs. He subse- quently went to Russia, where he executed some historical paint- ings for Prince Potemkin. " His success was so brilliant that he resolved to settle in St Petersburg ; but the rigour of the climate affected his health, and he was obliged in consequence to quit Russia. The glory surrounding the name and deeds of Frederick the Great allured him to Prussia. Soon after his arrival at Berlin he became a member of the Academy of the Fine Arts, and painted several pictures, the subjects of which were taken from Prussian history, and of which Frederick was generally the hero. ^ Cririe's Scottish Scenery. Patrick Gibson, in 1816, stated his death in London in 1796 : in the Statistical Account and elsewhere it is stated as 1793. L ART IN SCOTLAND. Of these, the battle of Hochkirk, fought October 14, 1758, in which Frederick was surprised by Marshal Daun and defeated, was the most celebrated." It is further mentioned of him that the Prussian king, Frederick William II,, in recognition of the merit of this work, had put down his name for the first vacancy on the pension list ; but Cunningham died before a vacancy occurred, in 1789, at the age of forty-eight.^ The books of the before-mentioned Cape Club contain, among other marginal memoranda, some sketches by Alexander Runci- man, whose club title was the expressive one of " Sir Brimstone." He was an artist of strong poetic feeling, much power, and un- bounded enthusiasm. He is styled by the intelligent author of the ' Letters from Edinburgh,' " the Sir Joshua Reynolds of this country, and whose invention is perhaps equal to that of any painter in Europe ; " ^ but he was one of those ill-starred geniuses whose lives have burned away in high endeavour. His father James was an architect and builder, who married Mary Smith at Kilwinning in 1735. Alexander was born on the 15th August of the following year, and the old family Bible register gives the further information that he was baptised by John Walker, minister, Canongate (Edinburgh), in addition to the precise date of his death. Showing an early love and talent for- art, his father placed him at the age of fourteen in the studio or workshop of J. & R. Norrie, with whom he served for five years ; and it was probably after this that he attended the quite recently established academy of the Fouhses of Glasgow, for what period is not known. His desire at this time was to follow the landscape branch of the art, in which he was so enthusiastic that one of his contemporaries has remarked that while others were talking of meat and drink Runciman talked landscape. He is also said to have attended the Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh, but could have received little benefit from the very elementary instruction afforded by that institution, as, when its classes were first opened in 1760, he was ^ Anderson's Scottish Nation. ^ Topham's Letters from Edinburgh : London, 1776. ALEXANDER RUNCIMAN. 163 launching into historical painting. Six years later, when about the age of thirty, he was enabled through the assistance of Sir James Clerk, whose notice he had attracted when working as a youth at Penicuik House, to set off for Italy with a very much larger stock of enthusiasm than money. In Rome he early con- tracted an intimacy, which soon ripened into friendship, with Fuseli, whose style of art was so similar that the work of the one might easily be mistaken for the other — Runciman, however, being by far the superior in colour. After a busy five years spent in hard study at Rome, he returned to Edinburgh in 1771, when he was appointed master of the Trus- tees' Academy, at a salary of ;£^i2o per annum. Here the class of work expected from him could not have been very congenial to one of his lofty aims and enthusiastic temperament ; but the salary attached to the office, and the few hours during which the class was in operation, enabled him to practise his art comparatively unencumbered by any great anxiety as to his means of living. During this time he painted numerous pictures. At the Royal Academy in London he exhibited in 1772 and in 1774 an Ossianic subject, and the Prodigal Son, for which with ominous fitness the poet Fergusson sat as a model. In 1781, to the same exhibition he contributed the Parting of Lord and Lady Russell, the Quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, the Landing of Agrippina with the Ashes of Germanicus, and Orlando and Oliver from "As You Like It"; and in the following year, Mary Queen of Scots signing the Papers at Lochleven Castle. Among his other pictures may be enumerated the Shade of Agandecca appearing to Fingal in a Dream, from the fourth book of Fingal, the Three Witches appearing to Macbeth and Banquo, and Cadmus receiving Instructions from Minerva after killing the Dragon, formerly in Newhall House; a Friar, with landscape background ; Samson strangling the Lion ; St Margaret landing in Scotland, and her Marriage with Malcolm Canmore ; Christ and the Woman of Samaria; Sigismunda weeping over the Heart of Tancred; Nausicaa surprised by Ulysses; and 1 64 ART IN SCOTLAND. a small Italian landscape, added in 1887 to the Scottish National Gallery. The much - disputed poems of Ossian being then in the full bloom of their popularity, their picturesque nature strongly ap- pealed to the wild enthusiasm of Runciman, and his friend Sir John Clerk agreed that he should decorate the cupola of his hall at Penicuik with a series of Ossianic subjects, in the execution of which the painter is said to have dreamt of rivalling the famous frescoes of the great Florentine in the Sistine Chapel at Rome. In spite of the contempt in which Macpherson's so-called trans- lations were held by many people, he persevered in his work, and completed twelve large subjects of great merit, although full of many defects in proportion of body and limb, with too much violent action and heroic posing of the figures. About this time he also painted an Ascension for the altar of the Episcopal Church in the Cowgate of Edinburgh, and an Andromeda, besides some of the pictures already mentioned, several of which he etched. The Edinburgh Theatre, which was noted for the taste and elegance of its decorations, contained, over the boxes, heads painted by Runci- man of the various poets after whom they were named, and also landscapes on the stage boxes. ^ It has been stated that Raeburn took his tone of colour from Runciman's portraits, which are re- markable for their simple dignity and truth. Up till the year 1784 he lived in the same attic in West Nicolson Street which was at a later period occupied by David Wilkie, and in the following year he removed to Chapel Street, where he dropped down dead at the door of his house at midnight on the 21st October 1785, at the early age of forty-nine. He was intimate and associated much with the literary and other celebrities of Edinburgh, among whom were Hume, Robertson, Kames, and Monboddo; and his death is supposed to have been caused in consequence of an illness brought on him while painting the Penicuik cupola. Probably of greater talent than Alexander Runciman was his ^ Topham's Letters, 1776. J. RUNCIMAN — J. DONALDSON. 1 65 younger brother John, born in 1744, whose life was measured by too brief a span to permit the full development of his genius, or to leave much work behind him, having died in 1768 at the early age of twenty-four. It is said that before his death he destroyed the greater number of his pictures on account of their quality not being such as he desired ; but the few that he has left give evi- dence of talent of a high order, and are all of a small size. These show a not unsuccessful groping after originality and excellence, which, had longer life been allotted to him, would have placed the artist in the very front rank of his profession. The mellow golden tone of colour, and half-suggested, half-expressed forms by which he sometimes sought to convey his ideas, were the sure precursors of future success, and it is easy to understand why, with this striving after the union of the real with the ideal, he should have found it so difficult to satisfy himself. Regarding the small pictures by John Runciman in the Scottish National Gallery, in the Lear in the Storm the magnificently suggested shapes of stormy cloud and landscape are expressed in the highest form of art, and it is pervaded by a tone of colour of the noblest kind. In his Flight into Egypt, in which Joseph looks not unlike a Dutch- man on horseback, the Virgin and Child are put in with an appre- ciation of great beauty of form and colour ; and not less fine in colour, although somewhat Dutch in treatment, is the Temptation, in which Satan is represented as an old man with a pair of good- sized horns, and snakes twisting behind the protruding hoof. He painted, besides these, Judith with the Head of Holofernes, Christ and His Disciples going to Emmaus, and the Pulling Down of the Netherbow Port, in the gallery of the Duke of Sutherland. The latter was one of a few of his own pictures which have been etched by the artist. Two Scottish artists of some note were born within the year 1737 — John Donaldson and David Martin. Donaldson was the son of a poor glovemaker of Edinburgh, whose attention was divided between his trade and metaphysical speculation. Un- fortunately his son inherited so much of the latter that it became 1 66 ART IN SCOTLAND. a craze, leading him away from the practice of art, in which he had great gifts, into a life of poverty, and ultimately of misery. His love of drawing when a child was encouraged by his father ; and at the early age of twelve he is said to have earned money by pen-and-ink drawings, mostly copied from old engravings. He prosecuted art for several years, and his name appears in 1757 as the recipient of a premium of four guineas for a drawing from a bust of Horace, awarded by the Edinburgh Society for the En- couragement of Arts, Sciences, Manufactures, and Agriculture. The following year he was again awarded by the same Society a premium of the like amount,^ soon after which he removed to London, where he met with much success as a painter of minia- tures, but unfortunately soon began to put his chimerical ideas into practice by attempting to reform society and put social life into order. He began to look on his art with contempt, spoke of Reynolds as being a very dull fellow in confining himself to the profession of an artist, and often denied himself to sitters of the highest position when he thought he was not in the humour to paint. His picture of the Tent of Darius, and his enamel paint- ings of the Death of Dido, and Hero and Leander, which were said to be works of great merit, all obtained distinctions from the Society of Arts. He was patronised as well as befriended by the Earl of Buchan, who purchased several of his enamels and paint- ings, including his Tent of Darius. About this time he did the portrait of Hume for the ' History of England,' regarding which Hume wrote : " The picture which Donaldson has done for me is a drawing, and in everybody's opinion, as well as my own, is the likest that has been done for me, as well as the best likeness. Since you still insist that an engraving should be made from it, we are thus more likely to have a good engraving made than by any other means. I shall be glad, however, to sit to Ferguson." 2 ^ Scots Magazine. 2 Hume, Letter to Andrew Millar, 19th October 1767. A footnote adds that Ferguson's productions are known to collectors, but who has not been handed down to posterity by the critics and biographers. DAVID MARTIN. 1 6/ Among Donaldson's other pursuits, he had a liking for chemistry, and invented a method of preserving meat during long voyages, which he patented. If there was any real practical value in his invention, he failed to reap the benefit on account of his poverty and ignorance of the ways of the world. The last twenty years of his life were spent in partial blindness and much misery, which led to his death at Islington on the nth October 1801, where he had been lodged and cared for by his friends, many of whom he lost by his sarcastic temper during his last illness. From among a mass of unfinished manuscripts found after his death, the ' Ele- ments of Beauty ' alone was published, he being only the sup- posed author of ' Critical Remarks on the Public Buildings of London.'^ Another John Donaldson, a contemporary, engraved some of the plates for Arnot's * History of Edinburgh.' The better-known David Martin, an artist of a different stamp, already mentioned as assisting Ramsay, under whom he studied while enjoying his extensive and fashionable practice in London, shows his master's handling in his works, as well as his affection for draperies and other showy accessories. He was the son of the parish schoolmaster of Anstruther ; and Davie, as Ramsay called him, was employed by the latter from about the year 1765, then in his twenty-eighth year, having been born in 1736 or 1737. When Ramsay was in Rome during his third visit, as already men- tioned, he sent home for Davie to join him with some of his master's drawings. He remained there for about a month, this being probably the only foundation for the statement sometimes made that he studied at Rome. While assisting Ramsay in London he attended the Drawing Academy in St Martin's Lane, subsequently going into practice as a portrait-painter, with so much success that he received the appointment of Limner to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and became a member of the Society of Incorporated Artists. After the year 1775 he occupied a prominent position as a portrait-painter in Edinburgh, and during the following twenty-three years of his life occasion- ^ Chambers's Biographical Dictionary, &c. l68 ART IN SCOTLAND. ally visited London, where he still held a connection, and where he died in 1798. Besides being a good painter, he was a skilful engraver both in mezzotint and in line. One of his most import- ant works was a full-length portrait of the eminent lawyer Lord Mansfield, painted in 1770, which he successfully engraved in line five years later, it having been commenced by a French engraver of irregular habits. His dark mezzotint from his own portrait of Benjamin Franklin is reputed the best likeness of that eminent man. He also executed in the same manner Ramsay's portraits of David Hume and J. J. Rousseau, in addition to Carpentier's portrait of Roubiliac the sculptor. Martin's portraits of course are very numerous : the Scottish Portrait Gallery possesses one of the Rev. Thomas Henry, whose * History of England,' praised by Hume, was fiercely attacked by Dr Gilbert Stuart and Whitaker ; ^ and the Newhall House list includes one of Lord Kennet. The distinguished Sir Henry Raeburn at the commencement of his career received hints in his art and the loan of pictures from Martin, who, however, soon withdrew this assistance, and long afterwards, when Raeburn began to show his great power for art, spoke of him rather contemptuously as the " lad in George Street." His portrait by himself hangs in the Scottish National Gallery. Another eighteenth-century Scottish artist was George Willison (born 1 741, died 1797). He was a native of Edinburgh, and seems to have early developed a taste for art, having received a prize of two guineas in 1756 when at the age of fifteen, for a drawing of flowers, awarded at the competitions held by the Edin- burgh Society for the Encouragement of the Arts and Sciences. In the following year he received from the same Society a second prize of four guineas for " a drawing from a picture " ; and in 1 758 a third of three guineas, for a " drawing from a busto." ^ After studying art for some time in Rome, he returned to England and followed the profession of portrait-painting in London, but latterly went to India, where he had the good fortune to cure a wealthy person who was suffering from a dangerous wound, and who, out ^ National Portrait Gallery Catalogue. ^ Scots Magazine for these years. A. SKIRVING— J. BROWN. 1 69 of gratitude, at his death bequeathed Willison a considerable independence. He then returned to Edinburgh, in which city he died, and where among other portraits he painted that of Beugo the engraver, in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, and one of Thomas Gainsborough belonging to Mrs H. Glassford Bell. Almost contemporaneous with Willison was the eccentric Archibald Skirving, born at Haddington in 1749. He was origin- ally a miniature-painter, but after returning from Italy, where he had been studying for a short time, devoted himself almost entirely to the execution of portraits in crayon, enjoying a considerable practice in Edinburgh. Although a conscientious draughtsman, his work is diy, minute, and prosaic, and he was seldom in the habit of flattering his sitters. It is said that he often bestowed unnecessary trouble over the most trifling details, in order to tease his sitters by exhausting their patience. His known works are not very numerous, and Patrick Gibson the artist, writing in 1816, mentions that his enthusiasm and genius were equally divided between painting, darning stockings, turning egg-cups, mending his old clothes, and other useful offices. For some years before his death he seems to have been in tolerably comfortable circum- stances, as he kept a riding-horse, and lived pretty much in the style of a country gentleman. At that time it is mentioned that his professional labours did not exceed one portrait in the year, for which his price was a hundred guineas. Had he drawn and painted for gain, he might, if this be true, have amassed a very considerable fortune. He died suddenly at the close of his seventieth year, in 1819, and was buried in Athelstaneford churchyard.^ The affinity between the arts of painting and music so often remarked is well illustrated by the artist John Brown (born 1752, died 5th September 1789), who also possessed many other acquire- ments in a high degree, which within the short span of his life marked him as one of the distinguished men of his time. He was the son of a goldsmith and watchmaker of Edinburgh, and ^ Statistical Account, 1835, &c. 170 ART IN SCOTLAND. after receiving a good education, including some instruction in elementary drawing at the Trustees' Academy under Pavilion, travelled abroad with David, the son of Thomas Erskine of Cambo, whose cousin Charles, an eminent lawyer and prelate, was then residing at Rome. He remained ten years in Italy, not studying under any master, but drawing from the works of the great masters — unfortunately, however, not working with the brush to any extent, thus retarding his future advancement in the practice of the complete form of his art. His drawings, especially of small heads in pencil, and sometimes in crayon, are of very high excellence, several of which were engraved by Bartolozzi. While he was studying in Rome, Mr Townley and Sir William Young having projected an excursion to Sicily for the purpose of study- ing the antiquities of that island, engaged him to join the expe- dition in the capacity of draughtsman, where he made several beautiful pen-and-ink drawings of the ancient Sicilian buildings. Having completed these, he returned to Edinburgh, being drawn thither by a pious regard for his parents, although at that time he could expect little encouragement in the practice of his speciality in art. While there, he enjoyed the friendship and patronage of Lord Monboddo ; and the Society of Scottish Antiquaries being then just established, he drew portraits of about twenty of the more distinguished members, still preserved in their library, besides heads of Dr Blair, Sir Alexander Dick, Runciman, and others. Among the drawings which he brought from Rome was a head of Piranesi, who was so restless that he never could sit still for two moments, Brown bringing him down at the first shot. A year before his death he removed to London, probably on the advice of his old friend Mr Townley, for whom he made the drawings from that gentleman's collection of antique statues in the British Museum. Finding his health giving way, he left London for Leith in 1787 ; but the sickness which he experienced in the then very uncomfortable voyage aggravated his illness, and he was carried up to Edinburgh, only to die on the same bed on which his friend Alexander Runciman had expired about two years previ- SIR G. CHALMERS — MRS BLACKWELL. I/I ously. The year before he died he exhibited at the Royal Academy a portrait of a lady, and a frame containing seven small heads. So well versed was Brown in the language, music, and poetry of Italy, that Lord Monboddo, in the fourth volume of his work on the ' Origin and Progress of Language,' declares his obligations to the artist for valuable aid in the Italian part of his book. The letters in which this aid was communicated, Monboddo published in 1789, after Brown's death, under the title of 'Letters on the Poetry and Music of the Italian Opera,' the profits of the publica- tion of which, in addition to the results of the sale of his drawings in London, went to his widow. Among other little -known artists whose names on obscure portraits alone save them from total oblivion, and whose lives were included within the eighteenth century, may be mentioned Andrew Allen and William Robinson. Robinson painted a portrait of Allen which was engraved by Richard Cooper, and has further claim to be mentioned as the painter of a portrait of William Forbes, Professor of Law in Glasgow University, painted about 1 7 14, and another of John Arbuthnot, M.D., in the Scottish Portrait Gallery, who lived 1667-1735. The death is recorded in 1791 of Sir George Chalmers, who studied in Edinburgh under Allan Ramsay, and subsequently at Rome. He was patronised by General Blakeney at Minorca, where he painted that officer's portrait. A native of Edinburgh, he is said to have married a great-granddaughter of George Jamesone of Aberdeen, through whom he inherited the family group of that artist engraved by Alexander in 1728. He was rep- resentative baronet of Cults, which was confiscated on account of the family adherence to the cause of the Stuarts.^ Although not practising what is considered a high department of art, the story of Mrs Elizabeth Blackwell is so remarkable as an instance of the patient perseverance and quiet heroism which have so often distinguished her sex under misfortunes, that she may fairly claim a place in the list of Scottish artists. She was the ^ Mr Bulloch's Life of Jamesone. 1/2 ART IN SCOTLAND. daughter of an Aberdeen merchant, and secretly married and eloped to London with Thomas Blackwell, a man of great attain- ments but impulsive character, and brother of the first Greek pro- fessor in Aberdeen College. After being some time in London, her husband was thrown into prison for debt incurred contesting his right to practise as a printer without having served a regular apprenticeship to the trade. Thus thrown upon her own re- sources, she began to make drawings of flowers for publication, and there being no proper herbal at that time, she was en- couraged in the undertaking by Sir Hans Sloan, Dr Mead, and other eminent physicians. In 1737 she published a large folio volume of 250 plates, followed by a second two years later, the 500 specimens of which she not only drew but engraved, and also coloured the prints. Her labours were handsomely recognised by the College of Physicians, and by the resulting profits she was enabled to relieve her husband from his prison, where he had aided her in the literary part of the work. While living at Chelsea, Blackwell devoted some time to the study of methods of reclaiming waste lands ; the publication of a pamphlet on which led to his employment by the King of Sweden. By his knowledge of medicine he was enabled to prescribe successfully for the king during a severe illness, and was in consequence promoted to the office of one of the Court physicians. Some inadvertent remarks, repeated by enemies at Court, caused him to be suspected of com- plicity in a treasonable plot, and in order to extract a confession he was put to the torture, under the pain of which he confessed guilt. He was in consequence sentenced to a traitor's death after being broken on the wheel. This was commuted to beheading, and he laid his head on the block on the 29th July 1747, retract- ing his confession and declaring his innocence.^ In the list of artists associated with the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, the names are included in 1792 of James Wales and Miss Anne Forbes as portrait-painters. They are probably of no importance further. ^ Chambers's Biographical Dictionary. 173 CHAPTER X. Architecture and sculpture in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries — Colin Campbell — William Adam — James Gibbs — The Adatns — James Craig — William Stark^ dfc. — John Henning — Samuel Josephs — William Mossman — John Greenshields — James Thorn — Robert Forrest — Thomas Campbell — Lawrence Macdonald, &=€. The development of architecture made very considerable progress in Scotland during the eighteenth century, although the best of the native architects found their most remunerative employment in England, where a larger field for their talents was opened up con- sequent on the union of the kingdoms. The great and important works of Inigo Jones in classic architecture of the previous century, followed up by those of Sir Christopher Wren, raised that form of art to a higher level than it had occupied since the period prior to the Reformation, and gave it the first great impetus in its modern form in England. Among the Scottish architects who migrated to England, the earliest was Colin Campbell, who died in 1734, and whose name is associated with very little work in his native country. He prac- tised almost exclusively in England, where he was at one time Surveyor of Works at Greenwich Hospital, and superintended the publication of the first three volumes of the * Vitruvius Britannica,' for 1 7 13, 1 7 17, and 1725, the original projector of which was Lord Burlington ; ^ the succeeding volumes of which more fully justify its title. Among the many designs in this work which were made by Campbell, he includes that of the mansion-house of Duncan ^ Walpole's Anecdotes. 1/4 ART IN SCOTLAND. Campbell of Shawfield, which formerly stood in Glassford Street, Glasgow, "the best situated and most regular city in Scotland. The principal apartment is in the first storey ; the staircase is so placed in the middle as to serve four good apartments in the second storey ; the front is dressed with Rustick of a large pro- portion, and a Dorick cornice and balustrade ; the garrets receive light from the roof inwardly : the whole building is of good stone and well finished." ^ Campbell possessed little imagination, at times avowedly reproducing the designs of Palladio, among the latter being that for Mereworth in Kent. He is mentioned as the architect for the Rolls, and Wanstead House, which was built in 1715, but demolished early within the present century.^ Foreign architects are said to have given a preference for the latter work, which Gilpin describes as being simple and magnificent, adding that it is difficult to say whether we are better pleased with the grandeur and elegance without, or with the simphcity and con- trivance within. About the middle of the century the grave closed over the remains of two Scottish architects of considerable eminence — William Adam of Maryburgh, and James Gibbs of Aberdeen. The former of these, who died in 1748, was of great ability and talent, and did very much for the advancement of the art in Scotland, by introducing a purer taste than that which formerly prevailed. His reputation, however, has been eclipsed by that of his sons, Robert and James. His principal works have been published in his 'Vitruvius Scoticus,' and he is best known as being the designer of the old Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. The well-known James Gibbs (1674^-1754), like his fellow- countryman Campbell, is almost unknown by his works in Scot- land, where his name can probably only be associated with the Church of St Nicholas, in his native Aberdeen, the design for 1 Anno 1 7 12. Campbell's 'Vitruvius Britannica.' ^ An instance in which a portico was added for the mere sake of having one where it is of no use, thus creating a want for the sake of architectural effect — a resource only resorted to by inferior artists. 3 Walpole erroneously, 1683. JAMES GIBBS. I75 the reconstruction of which he presented to the city. This is rather heavy, professing to be classic, but of no particular style ; alto- gether unworthy of the architect of St Martin's-in-the-Fields, and the Radcliffe Library at Oxford, his two most successful works. He was the only son of Peter Gibbs of Footdeesmire, a respectable merchant in Aberdeen, who died when James was a child. After his father's death he was taken care of by an aunt and her husband, took his degree of M.A. at Marischal College, and left Aberdeen at the age of twenty to follow the profession which he had early resolved upon. He spent six years with little benefit in an architect's office in Holland, where his talents attracted the notice of John Erskine, Earl of Mar, who was notable for his kindness and benevolence as well as his architectural skill : that noble assisted him with the means of going to Rome in 1700, where he studied for some ten years with Garroli, a sculptor and architect of some note. He returned to London in his thirty-sixth year, where Mar being then Secretary of State for Scotland in Queen Anne's Tory Ministry, Gibbs got a share of the works then found necessary for making London religious by Act of Parliament — a privilege which had been denied to Vanbrugh on account of having shocked the feelings of the pious by his comedies. During the progress of his first building, King's College at Cambridge, his patron, stung by neglect, disgusted with Court life, and alarmed by the impeachment of Oxford and Strafford, and the exile of Ormond and Bolingbroke, joined the Rebellion, by which his family was ruined. His first edifice in London was the Church of St Martin's, finished in 1726, which Ferguson mentions as "certainly one of the finest, if not the handsomest church of its age and class : " the octastyle portico of Corinthian columns, he adds, is as perfect a reproduction of that classical feature as can well be made. The entire design is suggestive of a classical temple, hurt by the intro- duction of two storeys of windows between the columns. ^ The greatest but not the purest of Gibbs' works is the Radcliffe Library at Oxford, built also in a classical temple form, rising from ^ Ferguson's Hand- Book of Architecture. 1/6 ART IN SCOTLAND. a circular plan on the centre of an oblong of 370 by no feet, with a cupola 140 feet high and 100 in diameter. While the dome adds much to the picturesqueness of Oxford, the building itself is defective in proportion, and too much has been sacrificed for effect. In 1728 he published a folio volume of his designs, which yielded him a profit of ;^i9oo. This, with a set of the Radcliffe Library plans, were his only published works. He died unmarried, after suffering for five years from a painful illness, and was buried in the church of St Mary-le-bone. To the Radcliffe Library he bequeathed his papers and five hundred volumes ; out of gratitude to his benefactor he left ^^looo, the whole of his plate, and an estate worth ;£"28o per annum, to the Earl of Mar's only son ; and while forgetting none of his personal friends, he left ;£"ioo each to the Foundling and St Thomas's Hospitals. ^ More intimately associated with the architectural development of his native country was Robert Adam (born 1728, died 1792), son of the already mentioned William Adam, also a native of Fife- shire, and educated at the Edinburgh University with a view to following the profession of his father. In his early life he enjoyed the friendship of Archibald Duke of Argyll, Sir Charles Townsend, and the Earl of Mansfield, and about the middle of the century spent three years in Italy. During his study there of the growth and decline of classic architecture, he had often regretted the absence of remains of the ancient patrician dwellings, and recog- nising the fact that Roman architecture had experienced a revival under the reign of Diocletian, he resolved to visit and study the remains of that emperor's palace at Spalatro in Dalmatia. For this purpose he associated with Charles Louis Clerisseau, an artist and antiquary, and accompanied by two experienced draughtsmen sailed from Venice. In about five weeks they completed a series of drawings of the details and such parts of the edifice as had escaped mutilation by the natives, in the course of which they were interrupted by the authorities. The drawings were published ^ Cunningham's Lives, Walpole, &c. THE ADAMS. 177 in London, having been finished there with the aid of Clerisseau, and were dedicated to George III., who had previously appointed him his architect. At this time he was elected a member of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies, and in 1768 was chosen to rep- resent Kinross-shire in the House of Commons. Clerisseau went to Paris, where his great talents led to him being appointed architect to the Russian empress. James Adam having now risen into a good position as an architect, was associated in the business with his brother ; and these two, conjointly with the other brothers William and John in the business part, planned and suc- cessfully carried out a scheme for raising the north bank of the Thames, and laying out the streets and terraces of the Adelphi, so named in commemoration of their partnership.^ The works were commenced in 1768 on the property known as Durham Yard, the site of Durham House and its episco- pal gardens, then "a corrupt mass of coal-sheds and lay stalls, resting on a swamp of black port-wine-coloured mud, where mud- larks waded in purgatorial ploughs for the flotsam and jetson of the sewers." 2 The Adams 'lad agreed to lease this ground for ninety-nine .years from the Duke of St Albans, at a yearly rent of ;^i2oo — 3.A enormous risk for the tenants, when the scheme is considered of levelling a steep incline by building streets of houses on a vast area of solid arches. At this time the streets of London were deplorably ugly, and although Walpole in 1773 speaks of the Adams' buildings as "warehouses laced down the seams, like a soldier's trull in a regimental old coat," both outside and inside, the houses were vastly superior in point of taste to those which preceded them. As was to be expected, great difficulties were encountered in carrying on the undertaking. For the encroach- ment upon the river an Act of Parliament was necessary, the preamble to which set forth that the unusual and unnecessary width of the river at that part weakened the current.' Parliament passed the Act, notwithstanding the opposition of the City as con- 1 Chambers's Biographical Dictionary, &c., &;c. 2 Walter Thornbury. M lyS ART IN SCOTLAND. servators of the river, after which appeared the following j'eti (T esprit : — " ' Four Scotchmen by the name of Adams, Who keep their coaches and their madams,' Quoth John, in sulky mood to Thomas, ' Have stolen the very river from us.' " ^ When the Adams originally planned the buildings, they seemed to have been under the impression that they had secured the occupation of the arches upon which the houses were to rest, as warehouses for Government stores. In consequence of this implied agreement not being carried out, their arrangements were upset to such an extent that they were nearly ruined, and in 1774 they obtained an Act of Parliament permitting them to dispose of the unfinished houses by means of a lottery. The scheme of the lottery consisted of the issue of 4370 tickets at ;£"5o, making ;^2 18,500. The prizes numbered 108 : six of them were for sums of from ^£"5000 to ;£'5 0,000 ; one hundred for sums of from ;£"io to ;^8oo; ^5000 for the first drawn ticket, and ;^2 5,000 for the last drawn. The lottery seems to have been sufficiently successful in relieving them of their undertaking, and in 1867 the whole property passed into the possession of the Messrs Drummond, who had obtained the estate from the trustees of the Duke of St Albans.^ In 1776 the two brothers published the fourth number of *The Works in Architecture of R. and J. Adams,' which was of equal im- portance with that on the Palace at Spalatro, and containing among the plates views of Sion House, Caen Wood, Luton Park House, the gateway of the Admiralty, and the Register House at Edin- burgh. One of their most important works in Scotland was the College of Edinburgh, designed by Robert in 1785, but modified for want of means. Within his time only the entrance front was completed, the central portion being designed by Playfair. While remarking that this edifice is not sufficiently bold for its position, 1 Foundling Hospital for Wit, 1784. Quoted by Mr Wheatley in the * Antiquary. ' 2 Extracted from "The Adelphi and its Site," by Mr H. B. Wheatley, F.S.A., in the 'Antiquary,' 1884. THE ADAMS. 1 79 Mr Ferguson states that " we possess few public buildings present- ing so truthful and well-balanced a design as this, and certainly the Adams never erected anything else which was nearly so satis- factory."^ Among their other works in Scotland may be men- tioned the Trades' Hall of Glasgow (1791), by Robert; and the Assembly Rooms, and Royal Infirmary (1792), in the same city, by Robert and James. The plan of the Government House at Calcutta was copied from that of their Keddlestone House in Derbyshire. The numerous works of the two brothers gave rise to what is sometimes known as the " Adams' style," the chief characteristics of which consist of the introduction of large windows, often rather bald-looking for want of dressing, grouped, three or more together, by a great glazed arch. Their buildings possess a certain classical grace and attempt at refinement then very uncommon, and are in their internal as well as external walls enriched by finished detail of much delicacy, sometimes verging on weakness. Many of Robert's designs have suffered from being altered in the course of construction, thus to some extent detracting from his deservedly high reputation. Robert Adam was also a fairly good water- colour painter of landscapes, generally drawn with the pen, washed over with colour in the manner of the period : they are distinguished by a luxuriance of composition and effective light and shade. His death, caused by the bursting of a blood-vessel, occurred on the 3d of March 1792. James, who survived him for about two years, carried on the business. Among other work, he designed the New Tron Church of Glasgow (1794),^ and superin- tended the building of the old Jamaica Street Bridge (1767) from Milne's design.^ Considering the advantages which Robert en- joyed in regard to his study as an architect, it is sometimes assumed that he did not accomplish what might have been reasonably expected of him. ^ Hand-Book of Architecture. ^ Clelland's Annals of Glasgow. ^ In 1809, a James Adam is mentioned as having been awarded a gold medal for "an edifice dedicated to national genius and virtue." l80 ART IN SCOTLAND. Contemporaneous with the Adams was James Craig, son of WilHam Craig, an Edinburgh merchant, and Mary, youngest sister of Thomson, the poet of the 'Seasons.' His skill was almost entirely devoted to the erection of private dwellings in the newer part of Edinburgh, and in 1786 he issued a quarto pamphlet con- taining illustrations and a scheme for remodelling the old part of the town, which was fortunately not adopted. A portion of his intended plan was in the form of a crescent, of which he said " it embraces the University and the Royal Infirmary, and would rep- resent the city, like an open generous friend with extended arms, giving a hearty welcome to all strangers from the South." There was at that time a mania for " improving " Edinburgh. In 1768 he published a large "plan of the new streets and squares intended for the city," consisting of a bald and formal arrangement of blocks extending from St Andrew Square to George Square, even less sat- isfactory than those subsequently erected according to his later scheme. The drawing of his plan, which was enthusiastically re- ceived, and for which he was rewarded with the freedom of the city in a silver casket and a gold medal, bore on the lower left hand a rather well-executed vignette of Cupids crowning the Arts, and on the top a cartouche containing a stanza from his uncle's poems. The late Mr David Laing possessed a portrait attributed to Martin, in which the architect is complacently contemplating his later plan of the new Town Hall, with a proposed circus and equestrian statue, while an elevation of his Physicians' Hall, by which he expected to hand down his name to posterity, is spread at his feet. The latter building was of considerable grace and harmony of proportion, but with no originality, and possessed incommodious internal arrangements. Its demolition to give place to the Commercial Bank is not to be regretted. He died on the 23d June 1795.^ Of much superior talent was William Stark, whose early death in October 18 13 prevented the fulfilment of the promise of his youth. He established his reputation chiefly at Glasgow, where he designed St George's Church (1807); the Hunterian Museum, ^ Dr Wilson's Memorials of Edinburgh. WILLIAM STARK, ETC. l8l in connection with the University, now demolished ; the City Jail and Court-Hoiises (i8to), the portico of which is nearly the pro- portion of the Parthenon; and the Lunatic Asylum (1810). He removed to Edinburgh on account of the state of his health about 181 1, where he designed the beautiful interior of the Library of the Writers to the Signet, and the Advocates' Library. The works which he executed were classic, of a fine style, graceful and dig- nified. By these he excited public attention, and improved the practice of the art in Scotland by giving good principles, particu- larly with regard to composition in street architecture, regarding which the magistrates of Edinburgh consulted him as to laying out the ground on the east side of Leith Walk. On the 20th of the month in which he died, we find Sir Walter Scott writing to Miss Baillie, "This brings me to the death of poor Stark, with whom more genius has died than is left among the collected universality of Scottish architects." During and since that period, the art has been still further developed by the erection of numerous public and private edifices in nearly every part of Scotland, many of them by men of genius, a list of whose names and works would make a lengthy catalogue. Among these may be mentioned James Gillespie, afterwards Gillespie Graham of Orchill, who designed a number of churches : the fine Saxon chapel of the Whitehouse Convent, near Brunts- field Links, is considered his chef-d'mivre. The modem front of the Parliament House, and St George's Church, Edinburgh, and the Custom-House at Leith, are among the works of Robert Reid of Edinburgh. Archibald Elliot was the architect for the County Buildings — the fine portico of which was modelled on the Erech- theum at Athens — for the Regent Bridge, and the new prison at the Calton in Edinburgh; also the Royal Bank of Scotland in Glasgow. Peter Nicholson (1765-1844) did much for the art in Scotland : he was unkindly refused a small pension by the Govern- ment to ease the poverty of his old age, although this had been occasioned by the publication of many works to which our work- men are largely indebted. No department of art has made more ;COTLAND. rapid progress in Scotland than that of architecture, the present professors of which fully sustain the credit gained for it by men later than those mentioned, such as William Playfair, the architect of the Royal Institution of Edinburgh ; Thomas Nicholson, one of the founders of the Scottish Academy; David and William Hamilton; Kemp, of Scott Monument fame; the Bryces, Burn, and Rhind of Edinburgh ; " Greek " Thomson of Glasgow, &c. It was only towards the close of the eighteenth century that the modern school of sculpture began to show symptoms of its development in Scotland. Among the earliest professors of the art, although entirely in a miniature form, was the venerable John Henning (1771-1851), so well known by his very exquisite small restorations of the Parthenon and Phigalian friezes and other similar works. He was bom of humble parentage in Paisley, and on leaving school at the age of thirteen was put to work at a carpenter's bench, that being the trade followed by his father. During a summer holiday in 1799 he visited Edinburgh, where he lodged with a fellow -tradesman who happened then to be working in Raeburn's house, and who treated him to a sight of the great artist's works. The portraits which he thus saw excited his admiration to such an extent, that he conceived the idea of himself trying to do something in the way of modelling ; and on returning home to Paisley, he attempted likenesses of some of his bench- mates cut upon blocks of wood, in which he became so successful that in the following year some of his productions in wax attracted the notice of Mr James Monteith of Glasgow. He was advised by that gentleman to leave his trade, which he did rather unwill- ingly, having, as he used to say, "just buckled" to his wife Kate, and went to Edinburgh, where, by the good offices of Mrs Grant of Laggan, he was brought under the notice of Francis Horner, Lord Jeffrey, Brougham, and Mrs Siddons, who employed him on medallion portraits. On the advice of some of these, he went to London in 181 1, where Mr Homer took him to see the Elgin Marbles, the sight of which so kindled his enthusiasm that he resolved to remain some time longer than he intended. The JOHN HENNING. 1 83 study of the Marbles was at that time limited to the students of the Royal Academy, but this difficulty was overcome by means of an introduction to Lord Elgin. He was nearly deprived of this privilege on account of his rather outspoken strictures on the educational method pursued by the Academy. In the meantime he had contracted an intimacy with his countrymen Wilkie and William Thomson, and by the kindness of Fuseli, who recognised genius in the plain outspoken Scotsman, was permitted to attend the life class at Somerset House. Here his attendance was of short duration, owing to the officiousness of a Jack-in-office who exercised his power of turning him" out on account of not being admitted in accordance with the rules. About this time, Mrs Siddons having shown the medallion portrait which Henning had executed for her at Edinburgh to the Princess of Wales, he received sittings from the Princess Charlotte, who, on seeing some of his drawings from the Elgin frieze, commissioned him to do one of the groups minia- ture-size in ivory. This was followed immediately by orders for seventeen more of the groups from the Duke of Devonshire and others, besides numerous commissions for wax medallion heads. Of the latter class of work, he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 18 1 2 one named the Earl of Wellington, and a frame containing nine heads, including Walter Scott, Dr Carlyle, the Earl of Lauder- dale, and J. F. Erskine. He did not exhibit again at the Academy till 1828, although the names of his two sons appear as exhibitors several years prior to this. Encouraged by his success and the high opinions expressed of his work by Flaxman and Canova, he determined to continue the Elgin Marbles series, but cutting them in slate, and afterwards casting — an undertaking which, after twelve years' labour, brought him fame, and also the mortification of seeing his work extensively pirated by numerous copies. His two sons had now grown up and acquired sufficient proficiency to aid him in his work. He made similar reproductions from Raphael's cartoons, and the friezes on Hyde Park Gate, in addition to numerous busts and medallions. The anaglyptic process of engraving, by means of which works in low relief are reproduced 1 84 ART IN SCOTLAND. by a mode of machine-ruling, in which one point traversing the reHevo governs another traversing the plate, had just been intro- duced, and he arranged with Mr Freebairn to publish the friezes in this method, by subscription. Only a portion of the second plate, however, was finished when Freebairn died, and the artist being too poor to carry out the series himself, and too sensitive to call in the subscriptions, the work was not proceeded with. The ease with which inferior casts of his works were produced robbed the artist of the reward of his labour, and left him at the close of his life a poor man. For a few pence a cast could be obtained of what had cost him months of close, thoughtful, and exhaustive labour. Taste changes with time : at the present moment it would be difficult to get even a pirated copy of his Elgin frieze complete in good form, but probably within a very few years it will be rediscovered, become popular, and again consigned to temporary oblivion. After an absence of upwards of forty years, he paid a visit to his native town in 1846, where he met with an enthusiastic welcome, being presented with the freedom of the town, and entertained at a public dinner presided over by Professor Wilson. His sole in- come at this time is understood to have been a small pension bestowed on him by the Spalding Club ; and the late Mr Hall, through the columns of the *Art Journal,' made an eloquent appeal to the subscribers to advance their subscriptions, so as to enable the old man to carry on the engravings, and thus reap the benefits of his labour. Mr Hall, in his appeal, remarks "that there must be something great in the man who, commencing his career at forty years of age, has been able to reproduce the works of Greek sculptors and Italian painters in a style original and per- fect in its kind ; who by the force of his own powerful mind sup- plying all deficiencies of early education, has acquired a know- ledge of Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Italian, and French ; who for forty years has numbered among his friends the names most cele- brated in literature and art." ^ ^ Art Journal, and other sources. W. MOSSMAN— J. GREENSHIELDS. 1 85 The early Scottish sculptors, so few in number, literally struggled into fame against the most adverse circumstances. Self-taught mostly, and born in humble circumstances, the wonder is that any of them even attained mediocrity in their art. There was no de- mand for or appreciation of sculpture in the country up till quite a recent date, and such sculptors as then existed found no higher class of employment than the carvings on chimney-pieces and tombstones. Early within the present century the art no doubt received a considerable impetus from the presence in Edinburgh for some years of the English Samuel Josephs, who was connected with the early period of the history of the Scottish Academy, the sculptor of the well-known statues of Wilberforce and Wilkie, and who stood high in the estimation of the famous Sir Francis Chantrey. A further taste was also excited by the visit of Chantrey to Scotland in 1818, whose works there, and others contributed to the Edinburgh exhibitions, induced some of our natives to endeavour to emulate them. Among the earliest of these was William Mossman^ (i 796-1851), son of the parish schoolmaster of West Linton, whose early years were occupied by monumental carving, &c., and attending the Trustees' Academy. When about the age of eighteen he went to Glasgow for some six years, after which he returned to Edinburgh to manage Deacon Thin's marble-work, furnishings of such material being then very much in demand for dwelling-houses. He settled down per- manently in business in Glasgow about 1828, where he executed several busts, including those of " Upright Aitken," a surgeon, and the well-known Dr Clelland, the latter being said to have been the first bust done in Glasgow. About 1836 died John Greenshields, the Clydesdale sculptor as he is called, being a native of the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire. The Advocates' Library in Edinburgh contains a seated life-size statue from his chisel of Sir Walter Scott; and in the Glasgow University Museum are some groups about two feet in height from 1 Father of Mr John Mossman, H.R.S.A., of Glasgow, and also of the late Mr William Mossman, both accomplished sculptors. 1 86 ART IN SCOTLAND. Burns's " Jolly Beggars," of much character and humour and fair execution. A similar kind of artist was James Thom, who in 1828, without any education in art, produced two figures of a homely character, representing Tam o' Shanter and his drouthy friend Souter Johnny. He was a native of Ayrshire, and appren- ticed by his own wish to a stone-mason in Kilmarnock, where his master, it is said, found him rather dull, and more inclined to work at ornamental carving, for which there was no demand in the town. On the termination of his indenture he went to Glasgow, but began his first essays in sculpture in 1827, at which time, being in the neighbourhood of Ayr, he solicited permission from Mr Auld to copy a portrait of Burns which that gentleman possessed. He made a tracing of the portrait, which was a copy of Nasmyth's, and within two or three days produced, as was to be expected, a somewhat defective bust. Encouraged by Mr Auld, he next attempted a head of Tam o' Shanter, which was doubtless a rather crude performance, as he finished it at one sitting in Crosby churchyard, where he was then working, employing for the pur- pose a stone taken from the ruinous doorway. By the following day Mr Auld had procured him a stone, which was placed in a proper workshop, out of which Thom hewed and chiselled his full-length figure of Tam, the type of which he took from Douglas Graham, a well-known Carrick farmer. This was followed by that of Souter Johnny, " his ancient, trusty, drouthie cronie," said to be the surreptitious likeness of a Maybole cobbler, who refused to sit as the model although offered two guineas a-week, exclusive of unlimited supplies of the national drink offered as an addi- tional inducement. No bribe would tempt any others to sit for any length of time. Even among the bonnie lasses of Ayr, none would permit their charms to be transferred to the representation of the landlady. One sonsy damsel, on being pressed, replied — " Na, na ! I've nae mind tae be nicknamed * landlady ' ; and as for gudewife, twa speerins maun gang to that name." The two figures were exhibited in different parts of the United Kingdom, and are well known to every visitor to the classical monument designed by ROBERT FORREST. 1 8/ Hamilton which stands on the banks o' Doon, near to " Alloway's auld haunted kirk." His studio in Ayr was visited by strangers interested in the locality, and he produced many similar works, such as the Landlord and his Wife, a figure of Old Mortality, and replicas of his two best-known figures of various sizes. His Old MortaHty was thought out during a voyage from Leith to London about 1830. He read the novel on board the packet, and made a sketch of his idea on the cover of the book. A few days after his arrival in London he was introduced to Wilkie, who showed him his works, among which, to Thom's surprise, he saw an almost identical drawing of the same figure, which Wilkie had made some years before.^ The last fourteen years of his life were passed in the United States, where he had purchased a farm near Ramapo in the Rockland country, on the line of the Erie Rail- way, and where he died in 1850. Still another self-taught sculptor, Robert Forrest, appeared about the same period, also a native of Lanarkshire, having been born at Carluke, in the Upper Ward. He was originally a common mason, and about i8io conceived the idea of attempt- ing sculpture from having seen some carved work at Mauldslie, Craignethan, and Douglas Castles. As if ashamed of his resolve, his first attempts were made in a secluded spot among the woods on the banks of the Clyde, to which he went morning and night, as he could spare time from his ordinary avocation. About the year 181 7 a Colonel Gordon, when out shooting, came across the sculptor in his roofless sylvan studio, surrounded by carvings of animals and some small figures. Induced, no doubt, partly by the novelty of the circumstance, as well as to encourage the young sculptor, he purchased a small carving of Bacchus, and sub- sequently another figure for one of his friends. This led to him becoming known as something better than a common workman, and the order from Mr Robertson of Hallcraig for a full-sized figure of a Highland chief, caused him to open a kind of workshop ^ Chambers's Journal, 1832. His two figures were shown in London during his visit there in 1830. l88 ART IN SCOTLAND. in the neighbourhood of a quarry, a few miles below Lanark, now attempted other equally ambitious figures, such as Old Norval, Sir John Falstaff, Rob Roy, and Sir William Wallace. The last statue was executed for the town of Lanark, and on its inaugura- tion Forrest was carried in triumph through the streets in a trades procession. About 1823 he began to attempt some ideal subjects from the * Gentle Shepherd ' and Burns's poems ; but these were laid aside on receiving a commission for a statue of Lord Melville, for a naval monument to be erected by subscription in St Andrew Square in Edinburgh, from designs by Sir Francis Chantrey. This was followed by the colossal figure of John Knox the Reformer, in the Glasgow Necropolis, after which, aiming still higher, he ventured on some equestrian groups. The latter consisted of the Duke of Wellington leaning against the shoulder of his pawing charger ; Queen Mary on a rearing horse, accompanied by Lord Herries, a work which is said to have received high commenda- tion from Sir Walter Scott ; the Duke of Marlborough, treated after the manner of the famous Elgin Marbles ; and the Monk Baston presenting some verses to King Robert the Bruce, who is mounted on a restive charger, after the battle of Bannockburn. These were all cut from a greyish sandstone of a hard and durable kind, known to masons as liver-rock, and was taken from a quarry in the parish of Lesmahagow. About the year 1832 his works were placed on exhibition in an enclosed area beside the National Monument on the Calton Hill of Edinburgh. He died on the 29th December 1852.^ Apart from these untutored efforts, the earliest Scottish sculptor of great importance was Thomas Campbell, born of humble parent- age in Edinburgh on the ist of May 1790, and who died in Febru- ary 1858. He served his apprenticeship along with the already mentioned William Mossman, to a carver in Edinburgh, who chiefly laid himself out for marble-cutting. While assisting at the carving of a chimney-piece in the house of Mr Gilbert Innes of Stow, in St Andrew Square, that gentleman was attracted by ^ Chambers's Journal, 1832. THOMAS CAMPBELL. 1 89 his intelligence, and afforded him the means of going to London, where he for some time attended the classes of the Royal Academy. By the same generous aid he was enabled to proceed to Rome in 1818, where he soon was so successful that he repaid with interest the money Mr Innes had advanced. This gentleman, who died worth over a million, prided himself on being Campbell's patron.^ He was early patronised in Rome by the Duke of Devonshire, for whom he executed the sedent statue of the very beautiful and handsome Princess Pauline Borghese, Napoleon's sister, who allowed him full opportunities for his work, and also permitted him to take casts from her hands and her feet, which were of very refined and perfect form : these Campbell made studies from, and they were afterwards cast in bronze and in silver, and much prized for their great beauty. This statue was undoubtedly his finest work. It created a considerable sensation in the Paris Exhibition of 1855. -^^^ eminent French critic wrote of it then, that "one would take for a copy of an antique statue the Princess Pauline Borghese of M. Campbell. She is seated in a curule chair, and contemplates the portrait of Napoleon. There was no necessity in representing the Princess Pauline Borghese to search for a beau ideal ; it was only required to reproduce as faithfully as possible the pure and charming characteristics of the model placed before the sculptor. This M. Campbell has accomplished. The drapery lovingly caresses the body, but it seems to us that the contour of the bust is not sufficiently full, if one would take as a standard the delicious statue by Canova, so much admired in the Pitti Palace at Florence." The Ganymede was shown at the same Exhibition, and equally and worthily upheld the reputation of the artist.^ The Princess Borghese statue was deposited at Chatsworth, for which place Campbell also made a colossal bust of the Duke of Devonshire. During the several years in which he was at Rome, nearly all his time was passed in his studio in the Piazza Mignanelli, being 1 Some of Campbell's acquaintances say they were nearly related. 2 Theophile Gautier's Les Beaux Arts en Europe : Paris, 1855. igO ART IN SCOTLAND. of a sensitive and retiring nature. His principal associates were' Thorwaldsen and two or three of the French artists, with whom he had learned to talk in their native language, although of rather imperfect education. Having now commissions on hand to the value of about thirty thousand pounds, he divided his time between Rome and London, at both of which places he retained a studio. He exhibited constantly at the Royal Academy, to which his last contributions were busts of Lady and Lord George Bentinck in 1857. He was a man of middle stature, robust and lively, but it is said that his sometimes brisk and boisterous manner was assumed to conceal a natural shyness and depression. Among his numerous works were several executed for the Buc- cleuch family; the bronze statue of the Duke of York on the Esplanade at Edinburgh; the group of Lord Hopetoun in St Andrew Square, in which the artist adopted the expedient of placing the soldier standing beside his horse — not always a suit- able treatment ; a marble statue of the Duke of York in the Senior United Service Club House in Pall Mall ; the striking and dignified heroic-sized statue of Mrs Siddons in Westminster Abbey; the colossal granite statue of the Duke of Gordon at Aberdeen ; and busts of the Duke of Wellington and Earl Grey, commissioned by her Majesty the Queen. He did comparatively few fancy works, not being possessed of a ready imagination, and slow in creation. His works in this form are characterised by simplicity and chaste- ness, good examples of which are his Psyche executed for Mr R. C. Nisbet Hamilton, and a statue of Lord Dalkeith, son of the Duke of Buccleuch, in the character of a boy-hunter, accompanied by a greyhound. 1 Lawrence Macdonald (b. 1798, d. 4th March 1878) was a native of Gask in Perthshire, and practised at first as an ornamental sculptor in Edinburgh, at the same time attending the Trustees' Academy. He went to Rome in 1822, where he remained four years, return- ing with several busts, including one of the Duke of Athole. In Edinburgh he did busts of the mother of Lord Brougham, George ^ Art Journal, &c. p. PARK — J. B. FILLANS, ETC. 191 Combe the phrenologist, and Professor Wilson and his two daughters. He returned to Rome in 1832, where he held the position of one of the chief British sculptors, and his country knew him no more. He was buned not far from the grave of Gibson in the cemetery near the Porta San Paolo. Besides busts, he executed numerous ideal works, such as the Eurydice, Arethusa, Ulysses and his Dog, a Bacchante, &c. Among the numerous Scottish sculptors now deceased who were born within the present century, the most important were : Patrick Park (b. at Glasgow 1809, d. i8th August 1855), who studied in Rome and executed numerous busts and other works, and whose colossal statue of Wallace was completed by the aid of subscriptions in 1851 ; James B. Fillans (b. in Wilsontown, Lanarkshire, 1808; d. Glasgow, 27th September 1852), who studied for a short time in Paris and Italy, and left numerous works, among the most prominent of which are his bust of Mr Oswald, the fine colossal statue of Sir James Shaw at Kilmar- nock, the Blind Girls (in plaster), and a very beautiful life-sized figure of Rachel weeping for her Children, which has been adopted for the monument over his grave in Paisley cemetery. David Dunbar, who died in 1866, studied in Italy, and in London assisted Sir Francis Chantrey, after which he executed many busts, among which were those of Earl Grey, Lord Durham, and Grace Darling, from the last of which he made several copies. Alexander Munro, a native of Inverness (b. 1825, d. at Cannes ist January 187 1), went to London about 1848, and afterwards executed many very beautiful works, mostly groups of children, an alto-relievo of the Duchess of Valombroso, a statuette of Hippo- crates,^ Paolo and Francesca, busts of Sir Robert Peel and Sir J. Millais, and numerous medallions. William Brodie, from being a common plumber, rose into eminence in the art, and after a short visit to Rome, executed among many other fine works the marble statue of Lord Cockburn for the Parliament House of Edinburgh ; another of Dr Brewster; and in bronze, those of Dr Graham, ^ Presented by Professor Ruskin to the Oxford Museum. SCOTLANtf. Master of the Mint, John Graham Gilbert, R.S.A., and the Prince Consort in Perth. His numerous ideal works include some of the figures on the Scott Monument in Edinburgh, the Blind Girl, (Enone, Corinne, and Dante. Few artists have done more to promote an appreciation of the art of sculpture in Scotland than the late Alexander Handyside Ritchie, whose works enrich many of the public and private edifices of Edinburgh. He was bom in 1804, and went to Rome, where he wrought for a considerable time in the studio of the great Thorwaldsen, afterwards practising in Edinburgh, where he died in 1870, and was buried at Inveresk. His younger brother John (1810-1851) was a seer of visions, from one of which origi- nated his model of the Deluge, commissioned by a Mr Davidson of London, and which he went to Rome to execute, where he died of malaria, caught during a trip to Ostia. The art has been worthily carried on by other sculptors more recently deceased, the last of whom, Mr T. S. Burnett, A.R.S.A., in his death (March 1888) has left another blank in the ranks of the Scottish Academy. Among the better class pieces of sculpture imported into Scot- land, on account of being so little known, as well as of their great excellence, may be mentioned the " Craigentinny Marbles," as they are called, which decorate the two sides of a very large kind of Pompeian sarcophagus near Portobello, the burial-place of Mr Miller of Craigentinny. They represent the Song of Miriam and the Passage of the Red Sea, and were modelled at Rome about the middle of the present century by a young British artist named Gattley, who was engaged on them for several years, but pre- vented by his early death from following out a career so nobly begun. The Passage of the Red Sea was exhibited in London in 1862. 193 CHAPTER XI. Early Scottish engravers — Clarke — Elder — Richard Cooper — Sir Robert Strange — Joshua Campbell — Andrew Bell — Francis Legat — Alexander Robertson — Robert Scott — W, Douglas — James Stewart — Mitchell— Kay — Beugo — John Burnet — Lizars — Geikie — Crovibie — Horsburgh — Sovierville — Howi- son, ^c. — William Berry. In tracing the development of the art of engraving in Scotland, it is needless to advert to the investigations which have been made as to the precise date of its invention, further than the fact that it has been traced back to about the middle of the fifteenth century. The art of course had been long practised in the south before it made any progress in Scotland, where it may fairly be assumed as rising into prominence about the middle of the seven- teenth century, in the second half of which occur the names of WilHam Elder and John Clarke. Regarding Clarke, Walpole men- tions him as working at Edinburgh, where he executed two profile heads in medal of William and Mary, the Prince and Princess of Orange, dated 1690, and prints of Sir Matthew Hale, George Baron de Goertz (in concert with Pine), Dr Humphrey Prideaux, a plate with seven small heads of Charles II. and his queen, Prince Rupert, the Duke of Monmouth, and General Monk. From the nature of the works and the fact that Walpole mentions another John Clarke who lived in Gray's Inn, it may be assumed that the Scottish engraver wrought mostly in London. It is also more certain that Elder wrought in London in the latter part of the century, and was, like Clarke, chiefly employed on heads for the booksellers, one of which of himself has been reproduced in N 194 ART IN SCOTLAND. wood in Walpole's * Anecdotes.' That author mentions as his best plate that of Ben Jonson, and also names his heads of Pytha- goras, George Parker, Charles Snell (writing-master). Admiral Russell, and Judge Pollexfen. For many years no work was produced by Scottish engravers of any consequence, and it was due to the settlement of Richard Cooper in Edinburgh early in the eighteenth century that the art began properly to assert itself, and from whose workshop eman- ated the justly celebrated Sir Robert Strange, one of the most distinguished engravers of the British school. It is not known when Cooper first settled in Edinburgh, but as his name appears as treasurer of the Academy of St Luke in 1729, he must have been then well known and occupying a good position.^ Strange was born in 1721, and came of a long pedigree, which he traced back to John Strang of Balcaskie in the fourteenth century, when he came to establish a claim to armorial bearings on his promo- tion to knighthood. A native of Pomona in the Orkneys, he was at school in Kirkwall till the age of fourteen, during which he pursued his studies into the classics, without some smattering of which no Scottish youth was supposed to have been fairly edu- cated. The death of his father compelled him to choose a pro- fession early in life. The accident of his place of birth naturally induced a love for a seafaring life ; an early faculty for drawing indicated some artistic profession ; while his mother's desire and affection prevailed that he should follow the career of a lawyer, which his elder brother was then pursuing in Edinburgh. After serving for some time with an attorney in Kirkwall, he joined his brother in Edinburgh, but immediately prevailed on the latter to permit him to go to sea. The Alborough man-of-war being then at Leith, an arrangement was made that he should go on an ex- perimental cruise. He accordingly sailed in the summer of 1734, returning some five months later heartily sick of the experiment. He now yielded to the persuasions of his brother that he should adhere to the legal profession ; but drawing had too great a ^ See also p. 112. SIR ROBERT STRANGE. I95 fascination for him to relish the dry work of copying out legal documents. He was in consequence placed with Richard Cooper under an engagement for three years, during which he lived in Cooper's house, and under the supervision of that excellent man and artist. In the course of this time his brother died, and he made a short visit to the Orkneys to see his mother. During the visit there he continued his work on some of the plates for the Tables of Albinus, and on his return to Edinburgh resumed his service with Cooper till 1741, when the Rebellion began to ferment. Soon after this he fell passionately in love with Miss Lumisden, sister of the secretary of Prince Charles, who made it a condition in the matrimonial engagement that he should take up arms in defence of the rights of the Prince. This condition made him a soldier in the cause, with which he probably had no deeper sym- pathy than gaining a wife of energy and worth to whom he was sincerely attached. After the defeat of the rebel army at Cullo- den, in which engagement he served as one of the corps called the Life Guards, he fled with the other refugees to the Highlands, where he had to endure the usual hardships which were experi- enced by his fellow-soldiers. Prior to this he had executed a half-length portrait of the Prince at Edinburgh. This was the first of his known works of any consequence. It is enclosed in a kind of cartouche or frame, not of very great excellence, besides being overcharged with allegory according to the fashion of the time, and is inscribed " A Paris, chez Chevreau, Rue St Jacques," prob- ably a Subsequent addition on its reissue in France.^ His next known work was of a more dangerous kind, being a bank-note executed when the army was billeted about Inverness, for the Prince and his friends, from which he printed some impressions by means of a rude press made for the purpose by a Highland carpenter. These impressions he handed over to the Prince on the eve of the battle of CuUoden, a graphic account of which he has left. Being thus seriously compromised with the cause, his ^ There is a small scarce print answering this description, excepting that it has no cartouche : it is probably the same. 196 ART IN SCOTLAND. personal safety was endangered, and it is related that on one occasion, when closely pursued, he suddenly dashed into the room where his betrothed was sewing, and found concealment under the expansive skirts of her hooped dress, while the soldiers unsuc- cessfully searched the house. At another time his life was again equally nearly endangered, when, in the capacity of aide-de-camp, as he was riding along the shore, a bullet from a ship lying off the coast struck and bent his sword. After the pursuit had somewhat abated, he ventured to Edinburgh, where, soon growing tired of concealment and of earning a precarious livelihood by making drawings for his brother Jacobites, he was successful in obtaining a safe-conduct to London, having got married in 1747. The next year was passed in London, where he lived under suspicion. The Inverness money had never been issued, and although his name was not included in the Bill of Attainder of 1746, neither was he specially excepted by the Act of Grace of the following year. He went to Rouen in 1748 in company with the Chevalier, remaining about a year studying and practising under Descamps, at whose academy he gained the first prize for drawing. It was in Rouen that he abandoned an intention which he had for some time entertained of following the art of miniature- painting, and in consequence proceeded to Paris, where he entered the atelier of the then popular Jacques Philippe le Bas, where it is said he became familiar with the use of the dry point, which he afterwards applied to his plates with so much advantage. During this time he did little work of any consequence, being fully occu- pied in studying and doing subordinate work for his master. The plate for a small vignette of the Death of the Stag, bearing his signature (1749), has been preserved: it is a copy from Le Bas, beautifully executed.^ His earliest work of any importance exe- cuted in Paris is Wouvermans' Retour du Marche, which was followed by Vanloo's God of Love in 1750. In October of this year he ventured to London, where he resolved to settle in prefer- ence to Edinburgh, as being a better field for his work, as well as ^ Reissued in Mr Dennistoun's Memoir. SIR ROBERT STRANGE. 197 affording him access to a better class of pictures. His wife, who had seen Httle of him during the first four years of their married Hfe, now joined him with their Httle daughter, and judging from her previous correspondence, had not abated in her Jacobite loyalty during her separation from her husband. Writing from Edinburgh, she tells him how cleverly their child, Mary Bruce, takes its pap, and ''girns and makes faces whenever she hears the word Whig mentioned," and when mamma names the Prince, kisses her and looks at his picture. Money evidently was not too plentiful, as she writes that she is living in a pretty genteel house at the Cross, with an easily scaled stair, designing to make more than her rent for the hire of her five windows on the occa- sion of the Restoration ! ^ Having now settled in apartments in Parliament Street, Strange set vigorously to work, and by correspondence with Mr Lumisden, his brother-in-law, at Rome, began to import numbers of engrav- ings on commission or for speculative sale. He was then employed by Dr William Hunter on the illustrations for his work on the Gravid Uterus, which were executed by French artists under his supervision, and w^hich appeared in 1774. The fourth and fifth sections of this work being particularly difiicult, were executed by Strange's own hand. The drawings, now in the Hunterian Museum of Glasgow University, were made by Rymsdyk, and for his six months' labours Strange received a hundred pounds. In the following year, 1753, he issued his Cleopatra and Magdalene, after Guido, at four shillings each, and went to Paris in search of an assistant. On his return to London, he removed to the Golden Head in Henrietta Street, where he wrought for nearly eight years, in the course of which he made another visit to Paris, extending over about four months, which time he devoted to making draw- ings from pictures for the purpose of engraving from, and also collecting prints. He now produced many important works, and to this period may be attributed, among others, the Finding of 1 Mr A. P. Trotter of London possesses her Prayer-book, in which, among the prayers for the Royal Family, the Stuarts' names replace those erased. 198 ART IN SCOTLAND. Romulus and Remus, Caesar repudiating Pompeia, Salvator Rosa's Belisarius, Vandyke's Three Children of Charles I. ; and somewhat later, Domenichino's St Agnes, Guido's Venus attired by the Graces, and the less successful Hercules tempted by Pleasure. The published prices of these ranged from seven shillings and sixpence to half a guinea, and some smaller subjects he sold for two shillings. About this time Allan Ramsay, who had painted the portrait of the Prince of Wales, was desirous of having it engraved, and com- municated with Strange for that purpose ; but the latter was obliged to decline the commission on account of the insufficient remunera- tion which was offered for the work. Probably Ramsay thought that the credit of the employment would have induced Strange to abate his price to the extent of that which was offered ; but how- ever desirous the engraver might have been of standing well in the estimation of the reigning house, he had still to earn a living for himself and his family, and therefore did not feel warranted in accepting the offer. It was said that Ramsay imputed Strange's refusal to political feelings. Some sharp correspondence ensued without any satisfactory result. Lord Bute even slighting Strange when he attempted to exculpate himself from this charge. As the engraver was at this time enthusiastic and successful in following the branch of art to which he was so devoted, the nature of the work had little attraction for him, and his better sense may be assumed to have prevailed over sacrificing his temporary prospects to sympathy with the exiled Stuarts, as he had already dedicated some early English plates to the Princess of Wales, who had accepted many of his proofs, as had also the favourite Lord Bute. His brother-in-law Mr Lumisden being still at Rome, adhering as secretary to Prince Charles, Strange now made a visit to Italy in 1760, leaving his wife and increasing family at home. Visiting Paris on the way, he was received with much distinction at Florence, where he made a careful drawing of Raphael's Madonna della Sedia, and some other works, most of which, including the Raphael, he did not live to engrave. Proceeding to Rome, SIR ROBERT STRANGE. 1 99 through the influence of Prince Rezzonico, nephew of Pope Clement XIIL, he was provided with an apartment in the palace, and also permitted to erect the necessary scaffolding while copy- ing in the Vatican, after which he spent eight months in Naples, where he made a number of drawings, including those from Guido's Potiphar, Rubens' portraits of himself and Vandyke, and Titian's Danse. He now made a second visit to Florence on his home-journey, staying some four months, and was on friendly terms with the tasteful Marquis Gerini and the Infant Duke Don Philip, to the latter of whom he presented a set of his prints, receiving in recognition through the hands of that nobleman's minister a gold snuff-box, and a shell set in the same precious metal to the value of ninety-five louis d'ors. From Bologna, where his visit was protracted on account of obstacles thrown in the way of his work through the jealousy of Bartolozzi and others, he returned home to his anxious wife, whose health was causing him some uneasiness. Immediately after his return to England he received many high distinctions as the result of his Italian visit. In 1763 he was elected a member of the Academy of St Luke at Rome, at a meet- ing of that distinguished body which was presided over by Mauro Fontana, the eminent Piranesi at the same time pronouncing an eloquent eulogy on the Scottish engraver. Within the same year, the Prince Lichtenstein sent him a gold medal bearing his portrait, in a gold case, through the hands of Mr Lumisden. The latter, in remitting him his Roman diploma, wrote that he would soon require a . chest to hold his presents and diplomas, the latter being then also conferred upon him by the academies at Florence and other Italian cities. He had also the distinction of being the first British subject received into the Art Academy at Paris in 1764, at which date he executed his plates from Raphael's Justice and Meekness. While thus receiving distinctions and honours abroad, he did not find anything like encouragement and fair treatment from his professional brethren in London, where the artists caballed against him, and had his works very unfairly IN SCOTLAND. treated at the Royal Academy, which had then received its charter. The Academy at that time excluded all engravers from its ranks in face of the protests of its president, Sir Benjamin West; and in fact, engravers were not admitted till 1853. Strange, naturally sensitive and touchy, with some justice thought that much personal animus existed against him, as in addition to the coldness of Lord Bute, he had the mortification of seeing Bartolozzi admitted a member as a painter^ who was decidedly his inferior as an artist. Meanwhile he laboured on with his old enthusiasm at his art, and added to his income, which was never very high, by selling some of his drawings as well as his prints, buying pictures on com- mission for various gentlemen, including his friend Dr William Hunter, and exhibiting his pictures collected abroad with the aid of Mr Lumisden. He had sale exhibitions for three successive years, terminating in 1771, and at this time he produced his masterly engraving of Charles I. after Vandyke, followed next year by his St Cecilia after Raphael, and his St Jerome after Correggio, published at one guinea each. As already hinted. Strange was somewhat sensitive, and perhaps given to making too much of what he sometimes supposed per- sonal animosity — a state of feeling naturally engendered by any one following an absorbing, solitary profession. In 1775 he pub- lished a pamphlet entitled, ' An Enquiry into the Rise and Estab- lishment of the Royal Academy of Arts,' preceded by a long dedicatory letter to Lord Bute, in which he narrated the transac- tion with Ramsay regarding the portrait of the Prince of Wales, and also referring to Dalton and Bartolozzi. The only criticism which this gave rise to was a couple of columns in the ' Morning Post,' containing so much ill-nature, and full of such bad taste, that Strange with his family spent the next five years in Paris, where they resided in the old Rue d'Enfer. During this time, among his other works he engraved Guercino's Queen of Carthage on the Funeral Pile, Guido's Cleopatra, Titian's Venus and Adonis, and Correggio's Magdalene. SIR ROBERT STRANGE. 201 His labours afterwards were pursued partly in London and partly in Paris, and he now began to experience something like goodwill on the part of the reigning family, which was probably due to his engraving from President West's picture of the Apothe- osis of the Children of George III. Proofs of this work he pre- sented to the king, who at once conferred on him the honour of knighthood, a dignity which afforded no little pride to the artist's Jacobite wife. His last work was his own portrait in medallion form from a drawing by Greuze, which completed his series of forty-nine finished plates. During the last four years of his life he suffered from a chest complaint, the result of the nature of his work, sometimes relieving his attempts to resume the graver in Paris by intervals of rest at Bristol and Margate — and died in London on the 5th July 1792. Previous to his death he had been vainly trying to finish his plate of the picture of the Assumption by Murillo, one of the great attractions of the Louvre, being his fiftieth. His wife survived him about fourteen years, and their daughter Mary, who inherited some of her father's talent, preceded him to the grave in 1 784. After his death a number of impressions were taken from all his plates, when the whole were destroyed, with the exception of that of Charles I. in his robes, which was mutilated, and several small plates on copper left in pt)ssession of his family.^ He was an early member of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries. The works of this eminent engraver will always hold a high position in an art which may now be said to be dead. He is often accused of inferior draughtsmanship, but this will hardly be borne out if we compare his best works with those of other engravers of his time. He wrought entirely in line, with great clearness and precision, and was eminently successful in giving the quality of flesh by the admirable arrangement of his lines and a judicious use of the dry point. In these respects he is unsurpassed, and stands as strongly opposed to such engravers as Wille as it is possible, never allowing mechanical dexterity 1 Extracted mainly from DsamalQun's Memoirs of Strange and Lumisden. 202 'ART IN Scotland: to arrest the attention, at the expense of good taste and modesty of execution.^ Of the Scottish engravers who practised in the eighteenth century, very few rose to eminence or produced works of any importance. Joshua Campbell, who was in practice in 1746, has left a water-colour portrait of Duncan Forbes of CuUoden, preserved in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, and is principally known as the engraver of some plates after Rembrandt. Reference has already been made to the engraving of David Allan and others emanating from the Foulises' academy in Glasgow, and also to the mezzotints of David Martin the painter. Although by far the greatest of the Scottish engravers, Strange practised too much in England to have any influence on the culture of the art in his native land, except in creating enthusiasm and emulation on the part of some of his countrymen. At the bench of Strange's master at a later period, Andrew Bell learned the practice of his art, and, as the original projector and proprietor of the four or five first editions of the * Encyclopaedia Britannica,' greatly advanced the art of engraving in Scotland. Previous to the year 1800, the art as practised there was of no great excellence, but to this enterprising man, who possessed toler- ^ A few years previous to his death, he had carefully selected eighty copies of his most choice impressions and bound them in as many folio volumes. To each volume he prefixed two portraits of himself on the same plate, an etching and a finished proof. Each volume contained a dedication to the king and an introductory notice on the progress of the art, with critical remarks on the pictures reproduced. Having made a small collection of paintings in Italy, he published a Catalogue Raisonne of them in 1760. At the end of the latter he added a list of twenty-seven engravings, and the prices he fixed upon them amounted in the whole to only £g, lis. Fifty -five years afterwards, at the sale of Sir M. M. Sykes, 1824, thirty-five proof impressions of Strange's engraving produced no less a sum than £190, 13s. 6d. The print which so greatly en- hanced this sum was a portrait of Charles I. standing in his robes, after Van- dyke — a choice proof before any letter. Note under the print, *' Given me by the most excellent engraver thereof, M. M. S." So great was the competition that it was sold for ;^5i, 9s. — (Walpole's Anecdotes, vol. iii. p. 265, ed. 1876.) A full margin proof of the latter plate was sold at Christie's in 1857 for ;^44, and at the same time a proof, first state, of Charles I. and his Equerry, after Vandyke, sold for ;^I9. F. LEGAT — A. ROBERTSON. 203 able skill as an artist, admirable tact as a man of business, and the merit of recognising and rearing up a number of talented young men as apprentices (some of whom afterwards went to London and adorned the publications there with works equal in merit to any of their rivals), we owe the first great impetus which was given to the art in the Scottish capital. His book illustrations are very numerous, and characterised by good taste. His wife was a daughter of John Scougal the painter, and he died at Lauriston on the loth June 1809, at the advanced age of eighty-three.^ Among the other pupils of Andrew Bell whose lots were cast in Edinburgh, was Francis Legat, who died early in life, on the 4th of April 1809. His works, although neither very numerous nor large, show indications of sufficient talent to entitle him to a place among the Scottish engravers of his time. His principal plates are, the Continence of Scipio, after Poussin ; a Scene from " Hamlet," after West ; a Scene from " King Lear," after Barry (the two latter engraved for Boydell's ' Shakespeare '), and Gavin Hamil- ton's Mary Queen of Scots resigning her Crown. Although trained under Bell, the influence of Strange is perceptible in Legat's work, which is notable for a high degree of careful finish. Worthy of notice, if for no other reason than being the master of Robert Scott, is Alexander Robertson, who etched some of the illustrations in the early ' Scots Magazine ' from drawings by Clerk of Eldin. He was working in the latter part of the century, and being a kind of musician in his way, left his bench daily at one o'clock for the upper chamber of St Giles's steeple, where, in his official capacity of bell-ringer, he treated the citizens of Auld Reekie to such lively airs as " Hey, Johnny Cope," and other melodies. The afternoons of the artist were not unfrequently spent in some place of public resort, during which time his pupil Scott had the privilege of working at the one window which lighted the workroom, instead of engraving in the passage.^ Robert Scott, whose forebears are particularly specified in the memoirs of his gifted son David, was born in 1777, and at the age of ten, in con- 1 Annual Register, 1809. 2 David Scott's Memoirs, by W. B. Scott. 204 ART IN SCOTLAND. sequence of an aptitude for copying Hogarth's and suchlike engravings, was apprenticed for five years with Robertson. He was almost exclusively employed on book illustrations, among the earliest of which are some views about Edinburgh engraved for Dr Anderson's 'Bee.'^ After his marriage in 1800, he took up housekeeping in the Parliament Stairs, overlooking the roof of St Giles's Church. His workshop ^ had only two windows ; a work- table ran midway along these supported by brackets, thus enabling each window to accommodate two tenants, the uppermost of whom were perched on chairs nearly six feet high. He also kept printing- presses, his principal customer being Mosely, a Gainsborough pub- lisher. Among the anecdotes relating to the Edinburgh artists of the time, it is told of Scott that in contemplation of getting up a work on natural history in emulation of that of Bewick, he applied to his friend Thomas Campbell, then a student in Edinburgh, to aid him by writing the manuscript. The latter being very slow in making its appearance, the patience of Scott got exhausted, and he went to Campbell's lodgings one evening, where he found him absent. He began to collect the books which he had put into Campbell's hands for the purpose, and found one of them — Bewick's Birds — so sadly dilapidated, that the landlady had to volunteer the explanation, " That's the book Mr Camel lichts his candle wi' when he comes hame at nicht." ^ Scott's pupils included William Douglas, F. R. Hay, John Burnet, Thomas Brown, James Stewart, and J. Horsburgh, in the order here mentioned. The first of these, besides engraving, practised successfully and well as a miniature-painter. Brown left engraving on receiving a captain's commission, and is known by his writings on natural history. James Stewart was of more note in his day, and particularly dis- tinguished himself by a masterly engraving in line from Sir William Allan's picture of Tartars dividing Spoil, and also some of Wilkie's ^ Twelve seem to have been published separately in 4to size. 2 In the uppermost flat of a land opposite the west side of the Parliament House. 3 W. B. Scott's Memoirs of David Scott. k JOHN KAY. 20S works. He studied under Graham at the Trustees' Academy, was one of the early Scottish Academicians, and painted some good domestic pictures, one of which, the Stirrup-Cup, is favourably noticed in the * Noctes Ambrosianae.' ^ He went to the Cape of Good Hope, where he became a sheep farmer and magistrate, dying in 1863 at the age of seventy-two. Contemporaneous with Scott was Edward Mitchell, the engraver of Northcote's Death of Sir Ralph Abercromby, who trained the stipple engraver Walker, known chiefly by his portraits of the Rev. J. Grey after Douglas, and Raeburn's Rev. Andrew Thomson. Towards the close of the century one of the centres of attrac- tion to the loungers of the Parliament Close in Edinburgh was a small print-shop in Parliament Square, the window of which dis- played a large assortment of dry, stiffly drawn and etched portraits of the notables of the city, often so ludicrously like the originals as to verge on caricatures, for which indeed some of them seemed really intended. The proprietor of the estabHshment was the well-known John Kay (born April 1742, died 1830), the son of a stone-mason of Gibraltar, near Dalkeith, which trade John was also intended to follow. On account of the death of his father, he was taken charge of in his eighth year by his mother's relations in Leith, with whom he spent five unhappy years, after which he was apprenticed for other six to a Dalkeith barber. On the ter- mination of his apprenticeship, and after paying forty pounds to the Society of Surgeon Barbers for the necessary permission, he started business on his own account, keeping the outside of the heads of the Edinburgh gentlemen in order at the rate of four guineas per annum. Among the many other peculiar individuals at that time in the city was Mr Nisbet of Dirleton, an old Jacobite gentleman, who enjoyed Kay's society so much that he often took him away from his business into the country, with the natural result that John's customers carried their wigs to other dressers. His sketches at this time consisted of horses, dogs, shipping, &c., with some efforts at small heads. Having in the meantime got ^ Blackwood's Magazine, 1827. 2o6 ART IN SCOTLAND. married, a rapidly increasing family added to his embarrassments, which were partly relieved by assistance from Mr Nisbet, who died in 1782, when that gentleman's heir generously settled a small annuity of twenty pounds on Kay. Two years afterwards his trade was quite gone, and the general appreciation of a caricature of a half-crazed eccentric old Jacobite named Laird Robertson led him into this line, in the practice of which he etched nearly nine hundred plates of the public characters of Edinburgh, and numerous local incidents. His works, which are mostly small, are utterly destitute of any art, but have the merit of faithful likenesses, with the gait and peculiarities of his subjects. So early as 1792 he had some thought of publishing his prints in a collected form. With this object he had drawn up a few notes intended for the literary portion of the work, but the want of means prevented him carrying out his idea. The plates were sold by his widow's trustees, and published by Paton in 1842, twelve years after his death. An incident related by Chambers gives an idea of the character of the man : A very ill-looking person, much pimpled in the face from the effects of too frequent an application to the bottle, called in company with his betrothed to have his portrait drawn by Kay. In vain the draughtsman tried to please the amorous pair by a likeness which would not too plainly tell the habits of the individual. On the appeal of the sitter to his fair companion as to where the defect lay, Kay declared with an execration that he would ** paint every plook in the puppy's face, if that would please him." A profile of himself, executed in 1 785, shows a hand- some aquiline countenance with a delicate and ingenious expres- sion ; and in his latter days he is described as a slender straight old man of simple habits, and quiet unassuming manners, who could settle at nothing but etching likenesses.^ Among the minor engravers in Edinburgh, John Beugo (born 1759, died 1 841) distinguished himself in the art both in line and stipple. He was an intimate friend of Robert Burns, and is well known as the engraver of Nasmyth's portrait of the poet, during ^ Chambers's Biographical Dictionary ; Kay's Portraits, &c. JOHN BURNET. 207 the execution of which he had the advantage of sittings from the original : it was pubHshed in the Edinburgh edition of the poems in 1787. A number of small book illustrations of landscape and other subjects were executed in his workshop, but his own practice was mostly confined to portraits, among which are those of Dr Adam Ferguson after Reynolds, David Martin's Dr Cullen, Rae- burn's Dr Spens in the costume of the Scottish Archers, and the Earl of Denbigh after Vandyke's portrait in the Hamilton Palace collection. He pubhshed anonymously in 1797, * Poetry, Miscel- laneous and Dramatic, by an Artist,' and had the credit of training Robert C. Bell, who afterwards rose into eminence. A much greater artist, however, who, as already said, left the bench of Robert Scott, was John Burnet. Born at Fisherrow on the 20th of March 1784, he early imbibed a love for drawing from his father, and also from his mother, who was a sister of William Cruickshanks, the friend of Dr Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds. He was a student at the Trustees' Academy along with Wilkie and William Allan, and went to London a year after the former, where he arrived in possession of only a few shillings and an impression from one of his illustrations to Cooke's Novelists, as a specimen of his work. His first engravings in London consisted of a con- tinuation of the Cooke series, and several plates for Britton and Brayley's ' England and Wales,' Mrs Inchbald's ' British Theatre,' &c. His works soon brought him into notice, and his first plate of comparatively large size was from Wilkie's Jew's Harp, which brought him the acquaintance of the eminent English engraver W. Sharp. His second plate, which was of unusual excellence, was from the same artist's Blind Fiddler, commenced when he was barely twenty-five years of age. As this contained a larger proportion of cutting than etching, it is said to have had very con- siderable influence in inducing the London engravers to return to the bolder style of the art, over which the more highly finished manner of Heath had for some years prevailed. According to his own statement, this work was based upon the style of Cornelius Vischer of Haarlem, while the previous plate was based upon that 208 ART IN SCOTLAND. of Philippe le Bas. In consequence of the unfavourable tei offered by Wilkie, he was obliged to decline undertaking the engraving of the Village Politicians, which was taken up by Raim- bach, in whose favour, it was afterwards found, Wilkie had con- siderably modified his terms. ^ His subsequent works after Wilkie were, Reading the Will, Chelsea Pensioners reading the Gazette after the Battle of Waterloo, the Rabbit on the Wall, the Letter of Introduction, Village School, Death of Tippoo Saib, &c. After the peace, he spent about five months in Paris studying in the Louvre, and from this period of study mainly resulted the publication of the first of his popular series of handbooks upon art. His ' Practical Hints on Painting,' which passed through several editions, was followed by his ' Light and Shade and the Principles of Composition,' the * Education of the Eye,' 'Letters on Landscape Painting and the Principles of Portrait Painting,' and * Turner and his Works.' In addition to these, he illustrated a volume on Rem- brandt, wrote several essays on art, and in 1854 published the ' Progress of a Painter,' being a portion of his autobiography, in which the hero of the story, a Mr Knox, represented as a young gentleman from Edinburgh related to his wife, is in reality his younger brother James. When John Burnet first entered upon his career in London, mezzotint was ably represented by Earlom, and a mixture of this and line was becoming popular. In order to preserve the purer style of the art thus being endangered, some nine of the leading engravers in London combined with the object of engraving in line a selection of the pictures in the National Gallery. This movement, unfortunately for the glory of the art, was not followed up. Burnet, who had joined it, engraved the Jew, the Nativity, and the Crucifixion, after Rembrandt, having previously executed the same master's Salutation of the Virgin, and Metzu's Letter-Writer for Foster's British Gallery. It has also to be noted that he was ^ Burnet was not so very generously treated by Wilkie as is often supposed. Judging from an autograph letter in possession of Mr Gibson of Glasgow, Wilkie was inclined to drive rather a hard bargain with Burnet. L WILLIAM HOME LIZARS. 20^ a painter of very great talent, and but for his fame as an engraver, would in this respect be better known and appreciated. In 1808, his picture of the Draught-Players was exhibited at the Royal Academy. This he subsequently engraved, and also his much more important picture of the Greenwich Pensioners, executed as a com- panion to Wilkie's similar Chelsea subject. The last five or six years of his life were passed in seclusion in his house in Victoria Road, Stoke-Newington, where he died on the 29th April 1868, in his eighty-fifth year.^ Among the Scottish engravers living at the beginning of the present century was Daniel Lizars, a pupil of Andrew Bell, who executed some good portraits, and died in 18 12. Regarding his son, William Home Lizars, it is somewhat difficult to say whether he should rank as a painter or an engraver. Nature and his own predilection inclined him to the former profession, but force of circumstances and a sense of duty compelled him to the latter. He was born in 1788, the eldest of a large family, educated at the High School, and entered his father's workshop in his fourteenth year. Like Burnet, he was a fellow-student with Wilkie at the Trustees' Academy, and early took to painting portraits and do- mestic subjects. His Reading the Will, and a Scotch Wedding, were both exhibited in the Royal Academy in 181 2, and are now in the Scottish National Gallery. The Wedding was engraved by Turner. Next to Wilkie, he was perhaps the most talented of all the painters of domestic life in Scotland in his time. His Scotch Wedding, precise in touch, sparkling in colour, well drawn and full of character, is a picture which would still hold its place in any exhibition. On the left-hand side of the picture the wine is passing freely, and the blushing bride reaches her glass across the table to touch that of the bridegroom, surrounded by their rela- tions. Prominent in a group in the middle of the picture, an old woman is being pressed to drink, evidently fearing to decline it too decidedly. Another group is engaged in dancing in the farther part of the room, the music being supplied by a fiddler ^ Art Journal, &c. O 210 ART IN SCOTLAND. perched Dutchwise on a barrel, close to which an old sot has been indulging in the mountain-dew to such an extent that he has landed backwards on the floor in company with a table and its contents. The vulgarity of the subject and the incidents intro- duced, however, are lost sight of in the artistic treatment and nicety of execution, in which respects it might rank with the works of Steen. His Reading the Will, while inferior to the latter, being rather cold and hard, besides being executed with much less pre- cision, is full of the character, incident, and expression to be ex- pected on such a momentous occasion. Many of the heads, how- ever, are good in all respects. The Royal Scottish Academy possesses an Interior of a Church, and a Cathedral Interior with figures. These were long lost sight of by the artist, and were dis- covered by a friend in a broker's shop in the Cowgate, where Lizars redeemed them for five pounds. On his father's death, a widow was left with ten children to be supported by a somewhat embarrassed business, and William, as the main prop of the family, was obliged to leave the easel for the bench, in order that the engraving business might be carried on for their support. This duty he undertook and carried out with great energy and decision of character. He distinguished himself by numerous engravings for pubHcations, of which his Crichton Castle in the ' Provincial Antiquities of Scotland ' is a favourable example. A portrait of Dr Morris in 'Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk ' is an example of a discovery he made in engraving, from which great results were expected. It is inscribed " En- graved in alto-relievo by W. Lizars," and is a copperplate engrav- ing so treated as to print at the common printing-press. In the preface, referring to this frontispiece, the author says : " I had a note from Sir Joseph Banks a day or two ago, in which he says a great deal about a new invention of Mr Lizars, which he thinks is the greatest thing that has occurred in engraving since the time of Albert Durer." ^ The engraving and printing business was long and successfully carried on in Edinburgh, and the able and in- ^ Peter's Letters, edition 1819. WALTER GEIKIE. 211 genious artist died at Jedburgh on the 30th of March 1859, at the age of seventy-one. Walter Geikie was born in 1795, seven years later than Lizars, and like the latter, divided his attention between the copperplate and the canvas. He was the son of a perfumer in Edinburgh, and when under two years of age was affected by a nervous fever which completely destroyed his speech and hearing. Having early in life shown some aptitude for art, his father placed him under Patrick Gibson, and afterwards at the classes in the Trus- tees' Academy; but as too often happens in the cases of mutes, he failed to develop any of the higher qualities which are so neces- sary to constitute an artist. He painted and exhibited a number of pictures in Edinburgh, of which the Scottish National Gallery possesses his Cottage Door — a husband and wife with their first child seated outside a cottage porch, surrounded by a group of figures, of fair execution and colour. He is mostly known by his etchings of homely and picturesque scenes, to which he early turned his attention. They are not of a very high class, and were issued in a collected form some five years after his death, accompanied with a biography by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, and letterpress by various writers. These consist for the most part of humorous and characteristic subjects, the material for which he found abundantly in the streets and suburbs of Edinburgh and places of resort, often making a sketch while walking along- side his unconscious model. An anecdote is related of one of the individuals who makes a conspicuous figure in some of his etch- ings. This was a pot-bellied porter who used to be seen about the Grassmarket, whose protruding nether lip and upturned nose gave him a droll air of vulgar importance which Geikie found irresistible. Day after day he haunted his victim, waiting an opportunity; but the porter no sooner caught a glance of the sketch-book than he slunk away among a crowd, shifting uneasily from place to place as he saw Geikie prowling after him, ready to take advantage of an unguarded moment for his fell purpose. One day this continued till the market began to thin away, when 212 ART IN SCOTLAND. concealment became less possible, and the angry porter, exas- perated by the persecution of the young artist, opened a volley of language more expressive than polite, which his tormentor of course could not hear, but could not fail to understand what was meant by the shaking of the mutton fist and the threatening attitude, which only further excited his enthusiasm. Regardless of the consequences, Geikie still attempted to use his pencil, which so exasperated the porter that he made a rush at the artist. The latter being by far the lighter of the two, made a rapid retreat, and renewed his task while his victim was advancing, but soon found that it was impossible to obtain a sketch in this man- ner, and after several trials, finding the porpoise getting danger- ously near, made a bolt up a common stair, which the porter fancied led to his domicile. Although he seemed to have de- feated the first intention, the spirit of revenge was aroused, and puflEing and blowing till he could regain his lost breath, he deter- mined to wait till the young artist should emerge from what after all might be only a place of concealment. Geikie meantime, from an old dirty window in the staircase, had a full view of his model, whom he soon transferred to his sketch-book; and then hour after hour passed away before he could venture out of his refuge, as the grim Cerberus kept watch till either his patience became exhausted, or the thought occurred to him that he might be thus losing a more profitable job, when he slowly moved ofi" muttering threats of future vengeance.^ Geikie was of an amiable and ingenious temperament, and his short life was brought to a close by the concealment of a disorder till it had gone too far to render a cure possible. He first exhibited in the Edinburgh Exhibition of 1815, and was a frequent and prolific contributor to the early exhibitions of the Academy, to the first of which in 1827 he sent five works, and was elected an associate in 1831 ; three years afterwards he was promoted to the rank of full Academician, dying on the ist of August 1837. An artist of somewhat the same kind as Kay, was Benjamin W. ^ Chambers's Edinburgh Journal. k J. HORSBURGH — D. SOMERVILLE. 21 3 Crombie, born in Edinburgh on the 19th of July 1803, the son of a solicitor, and who also exhibited in some of the early exhibi- tions of the Academy. About the year 1832, he lithographed and published two prints which had a large sale, and are still at times to be met with in out-of-the-way places, consisting of twelve heads representative of the pulpit and the bar. He practised the art of miniature-painting, but is best known by his series of forty-eight etched plates, each containing two subjects, which were exe- cuted between the years 1837 and 1847. In these the leading men of Edinburgh are etched in a free and clever manner, tinted with colour, and were published between 1839 and 1851, and reissued in 1882 under the title of ' Modern Athenians.' John Horsburgh, already mentioned as a pupil of Robert Scott, rapidly took a good position in his art, and distinguished himself among other works by his portraits of Bailie Nicol Jarvie after Sir William Allan, Sir Walter Scott after Raeburn and Lawrence (the latter for the ' Art Journal ' of 1858), Taylor's disputed portrait of Burns for the Royal Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland; Prince Charles reading a Dispatch, after Simpson, for the Glasgow Art Union ; Innes's Italian Shepherds ; and several plates from Turner, including that artist's vignette to the illus- trated edition of Scott. He was a minister of the original Baptist Church in Edinburgh for thirty-seven years, and died on the 25 th September 1869, in his seventy-ninth year.^ Daniel Somerville was one of the early Scottish painter-engravers who lived in Edinburgh early in the present century, where he died in 1833. He was a member of the Scottish Academy, and painted some humorous scenes of rural life, politicians, &c., much in the prevailing style of his period. His most important painting was a Wedding Scene in the Hebrides,^ and the Scottish Gallery contains a small picture of two children with a dog, painted in a free manner, with a good tone of warm colour. He is known as an engraver by several vignettes and book plates executed in a fine clear style, and he also did some wood-engraving. He had a considerable 1 Art Journal. 2 Edinburgh Annual Register, 1816. 214 ART IN SCOTLAND. reputation in his day for drawings of landscapes, portraits, an( small figures in pencil. The well-known engraver William Howison was born in Edin- burgh in 1798, educated in Heriot's Hospital, and apprenticed to Mr Wilson, an engraver. His abilities were first recognised by D. O. Hill, when Sir George Harvey employed him on the import- ant plate of his Curlers, which was so successful that he was elected an Associate of the Scottish Academy. His succeeding works were Sir William Allan's Polish Exiles, Harvey's Covenanters' Commun- ion and Schule Skailin, and Faed's First Letter from the Emi- grants, engraved for the Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland. His death occurred while engaged on the last- mentioned plate, which he did not live to finish, in the year 1851. At the time of his death the * Scotsman ' newspaper mentioned him as " a man of strong native sense, integrity, honour, and in- sight into many things besides engraving. We never met with a finer embodiment of the sturdy, the hearty, and the tender virtues of a Scottish craftsman." The art has been worthily carried on by many excellent en- gravers born within the present century, accounts of whom and their works might be largely extended, but which would form little else than an uninteresting enumeration of names and dates. Chief among these, now deceased, were Robert Charles Bell (1806-18 7 2), trained under Beugo, and the engraver of many fine plates after Wilkie, Sir William Allan, Raeburn, Watson Gordon, Harvey, &c. ; William Miller, who died at Shefiield in 1887, at the advanced age of eighty-six, whose very magnificent reproductions of Turner's works have in all their finest qualities been unapproached by any other engraver; the veteran John Leconte, who also died in 1887, and who in his early days was equally talented as a painter as well as an engraver ; Francis Croll, who died at the early age of twenty- seven, in the year 1854 ; and the eminent William Forrest, who has done for M'Culloch what Miller did for Turner. Previous to the year 1790, there were only about two or three engravers on copper in Edinburgh, and about as many workers in WILLIAM BERRY. 21$ silver and other metals ; fifty years later, there were as many as eighty-five engravers, counting masters and journeymen. The freer use of steel instead of copperplate after 1825, no doubt had much to do with this increase, as the art became more valuable for book illustrative purposes in consequence. With regard to the latter class of work in 1800, three or four guineas was considered a fair price for octavo vignettes; in 1845, fifty to eighty guineas have been given to Edinburgh engravers by London publishers for similar-sized plates, but of course the quality of the work was beyond all comparison.^ To the Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland is due the credit of having afforded the Scottish engravers an opportunity of showing their skill in the many large and fine works which that body have issued to their subscribers. An artist in another branch of engraving not usually considered as one of the fine arts, deserves mention on account of his great ingenuity — William Berry (born about 1730, died 3d June 1783). He learned his art of seal-engraving under a Mr Proctor at Edin- burgh, and began business on his own account at the termination of his apprenticeship, soon distinguishing himself for the elegance of his designs, and the clearness and sharpness of his mode of cutting. At this time the business of a stone-engraver in the Scottish capital was exclusively confined to the cutting of ordinary seals, the most elaborate forms of which consisted of armorial bearings. For some years he confined his labours to this class of work, but by studying some antique intaglios, ventured into that higher walk of art. His first attempt was a head of Sir Isaac Newton, remarkable for precision and delicacy, followed some time afterwards by heads of the poet Thomson, Queen Mary, Oliver Cromwell, Julius Caesar, a young Hercules, and Hamilton of Bangour, two of which were copied from the antique. His own modesty and feeling of imper- fection of his work, besides its unremunerative nature, gave him unfortunately an aversion to the pursuit of this higher class of art, and during this time he mostly applied himself to its ordinary 1 New Statistical Account, 1845. 2l6 ART IN SCOTLAND. practice on seals. His works, however, gradually came to be known and appreciated by some distinguished cognoscenti, many of whom ranked him above the Roman Piccler ; but each of these artists, on seeing specimens, pronounced the other his superior. Altogether he did not do above a dozen heads, in addition to some full-length figures of men and animals remarkable for their elegance. Of his modesty and skill, an anecdote is related to the effect that Henry, Duke of Buccleuch, on succeeding to the title and. estates, was desirous of having a seal cut with the full quarterings of his arms. As the ancestral quarterings numbered no less than thirty-two, besides supporters, &c., he found it difficult to get executed within the ordinary size, and the work was declined for this reason by the principal seal -engravers in London and Paris. A gentleman having mentioned Berry to the Duke, he accompanied the latter to the engraver, and without introducing him, showed Berry the impression of a seal which the Dowager - Duchess had got cut by a Jew in London, then dead, and which had been shown to the other engravers as a pattern. Beny undertook to do the work, and misinterpreting a remark made by the Duke, turned to him a little nettled and said, " If I do not make a better seal than this, I will charge no payment for it." The seal in proper time was finished, and not only excelled the pattern in workmanship, but had in addition the lines indicating the various colours of the fields and bearings. For this work he only charged thirty-two guineas, which was less than half the cost of the pattern he excelled. Although possessed of talents unequalled in their kind in Britain, an industrious worker and economical liver, he died in far from affluent circum- stances, and left a numerous family. His character in private life is said to have been as amiable and unassuming as his talents were great.^ A portrait of him was executed in 1765 by William Delacour, and engraved in the 'Bee' 1793, from a copy by Skirving. The drawing by Skirving is in the Scottish National Gallery. ^ Chambers's Biographical Dictionary. 217 I CHAPTER XII. Formation of the Modem School of Painting — Portrait-painters of the early nineteenth century — John Bogle — Sir Henry Raeburn — George Watson — Sir John Watson Gordon — Andrew Geddes — William Nicholson — James Tannock — John Graham Gilbert — Colvin Smith — John and Patrick Syme — William Smellie Watson — T. Fraser — Saxon — J. S. Harvie — Nairne — Yellowlees — George Sanders — William Douglas — W. J. Thomson — Alex- ander Robertson — Antony Stewart — Margaret Gillies. Of the art of painting in Scotland we can trace step by step back- wards, with many gaps it is true, the gradual development, and within these gaps may be written civil war or religious disturbance. The pictures already referred to, show that although few names are known, Jamesone and Scougal were not our first native artists ; but still these may be considered the founders of the school. In the wall and ceiling decorations of some of the old buildings already mentioned, we see the beginnings of the art of landscape- painting as well as of history and poetry in the seventeenth cen- tury ; and from the traditional period, as it may be called, of Scot- tish art, its progress can be clearly followed in the works of men whose names can be identified with their works, and of whose lives we know something. In one respect Scottish art in painting stands alone as con- trasted with that of other nations : it has risen into its full de- velopment within the space of the last hundred years, and is thus the reflex of the character of a people comparatively free of eccles- iastical influence or State patronage. Its growth has kept pace with the extension of our commerce, the concentration of wealth 2l8 ART IN SCOTLAND. by trade, and the cultivation of our literature ; and it has dependec entirely from its very beginnings on the general public for its en- couragement. It is thus that the noble portraits of the great Raeburn, whether representing the types of Scottish manhood or of the mothers and daughters of the people, are as distinctly Scot- tish as those of Velasquez and Titian are Spanish and ItaHan ; Wilkie in his domestic scenes, when uncontaminated by foreign travel, is as distinctly national as Teniers, Ostade, or Terburg; Harvey in his Covenanting subjects is more local than, and as earnest as, any artist who ever portrayed the agonies and suffer- ings of saints and martyrs : among the dead, Horatio M'Culloch, and among the living, Peter Graham, M'Whirter, and others, are truer to the instincts and character of their native land than were Claude, Ruysdael, or Rosa ; Sir William Allan, who died in front of his picture of the Battle ©f Bannockburn, Thomas Duncan, and our other historical painters, found their most successful subjects in the incidents of Scottish history ; and John Phillip, latterly so distinguished by his magnificent Spanish pictures, probably owes that distinction and success in his work to the similar tempera- ment of the Scot and the Spaniard, so observable, as already men- tioned, in Raeburn's work. The pictorial art of Holland nearly approaches that of Scotland in the assertion of its homely character, but we look in vain along the walls of the Scottish galleries for those evidences of municipal patronage which are seen at Amsterdam and the Hague. In England, almost to the present day, the influence is felt of Van- dyke, Kneller, and other foreigners ; but in Scotland there is little indication of foreign influence, except in some of the works of Jamesone, prior to the year 1630. No foreign artist of great eminence was ever tempted to settle in Scotland and thus leave his influence on Scottish art : the greatest was Medina, whose works are neither Scottish nor Spanish in character. It is true that our native artists practising abroad painted in the manner of the people among whom they were located, and therefore Jacob More, Gavin Hamilton, Aikman, and others, have left little in k EARLY NINETEENTH-CENTURY PAINTERS. 219 their works in common with what has become the recognised style of the art of their native country. From what has already been said, it will be easily understood that portrait-painting was the earliest developed branch of the art in Scotland, and we may safely assume that it took its full position in the works of Raeburn, whose life links the last with the present century. Endowed with great genius, he had the advantage of living at a time when the Modern Athens was graced by the most distinguished coterie of eminent men ever gathered together in that city, and most of whom were the subjects of his brush. The great breadth of execution, fine colour, and masterly form evident in all his works, and the peculiar sweetness of tone, grace, and tenderness of his female portraits, worthily entitle him to the high rank he holds as the representative of the school. Our landscape art was the next to be fully matured in the works of the elder Nasmyth, immediately after which, or indeed almost simultane- ously, our domestic painters began to distinguish themselves, among the earliest of whom was David Allan, culminating in the exquisite works of Wilkie, whose Village Festival will compare favourably, in subtlety, colour, and execution, with any picture of the kind ever painted, and which class of art is still worthily rep- resented by Thomas Faed. Our landscape artists, however, did not definitely get hold of the character of Scottish scenery till almost the time of M'Culloch, and there is little doubt that the art received its greatest impetus from the publication of the works of the great Wizard of the North, whose ' Lady of the Lake,' after the year 1810, when it first appeared, drew public attention to the beauty of Scottish scenery, and awakened such an enthusiasm for the Highlands that crowds flocked to enjoy the beautiful scenes of that charming and still popular romantic poem. In point of date, historical painting succeeded the domestic style, led by Alexander Runciman and followed by Sir William Allan; for although Gavin Hamilton had in 1776 exhibited in London his Queen Mary resigning her Crown, it was painted in Rome, and entirely under the influence of the fashion then prevailing in that 220 ART IN SCOTLAND. city. In regard to religious art, although we have noble specimens left us by WilHam Dyce and Robert Scott Lauder, it could hardly be expected that Presbyterian Scotland should have proved a fertile nursery for that branch of painting, whatever may result in the future from the noble efforts of Sir J. Noel Paton. Excepting Ramsay, who spent but a comparatively short time in Edinburgh, and David Martin, who passed the last twenty-two years of his life in the same city, no native painter of any emi- nence remained long in settled practice in Scotland between the time of Scougal and that of Raeburn. In addition to those men- tioned, one of the more immediate predecessors to Raeburn was John Bogle, who died in 1804. He was a native of Glasgow, and is thus referred to by Allan Cunningham : "He loved to paint the heads of ladies, which no one did more gracefully. His portrait of the Lady Eglinton, to whom the ' Gentle Shepherd ' is inscribed, may be compared with any miniature of modern times. He excelled in small likenesses, was a little lame man, very proud, very poor, and very singular. He imagined himself of high de- scent, and claimed, in conversation at least, the Earldom of Men- teith." At the request of the Earl of Mar, he made an accurate copy of a small portrait of Mary Queen of Scots. The original of this, which was painted on copper by an artist in France, came into the possession of the Earl of Mar's family, in accordance with the request of the queen expressed shortly before her death, and being nailed to a wall in one of the apartments in Alloa House, was destroyed by fire.^ Even Bogle, however, does not seem to have remained settled in Scotland, as the address of " Panton Square" is attached to his miniatures at the London Academy, where he exhibited in 1775, 1776, 1777, and 1787, one of these being a representation of Vertumnus and Pomona. With the exception of Allan Cunningham's short biography of Sir Henry Raeburn in his * Lives of British Artists,' it is remark- able that no memoir of the artist appeared till that compiled and published by his great-grandson William Raeburn Andrew in 1886, ^ Scots Magazine, 1826. SIR HENRY RAEBURN. 221 sixty-three years after his death, although he was a prominent figure in the Scottish metropoHs, associating intimately with many literary celebrities who could have done the task so well. Valuable as this memoir by his descendant is, much more interesting it would have been if written by his friend Christopher North, or Sir Walter Scott, who sat to him oftener than to any other artist, and by both of whom he was held in the highest esteem. He was born on the ist of March 1756 at Stockbridge, then a suburb of Edinburgh, and was the descendant of a Border family. His father Robert was a mill proprietor, and, with his wife Ann Elder, lived in pretty comfortable circumstances ; but Henry had the misfortune to lose both his parents when little more than six years of age. William, his elder brother by twelve years, did the best he could to supply the loss, and through the offices of some friends, got him placed in " Heriot's Wark," where he got a good plain education, and received the other benefits of that excellent institution, showing an early capacity for drawing. He was removed from school about the age of fifteen, and apprenticed to Mr Gililand, a jeweller and goldsmith, at his own desire, and immediately, in addition to showing proofs of taste and ingenuity in his regular work, evinced his talent for art in the production of some water- colour miniatures of his friends, for which he received much praise among his associates. Some of these coming under the observa- tion of his employer, he took him to David Martin's studio to see that artist's portraits, and as he had begun already to earn a little money by his miniatures, he determined to follow the art, and arranged with his master to pay a sum of money in lieu of com- pleting the period of his apprenticeship. He was, it may be said, entirely self-educated, as all the instruction he ever received was an occasional hint from Martin, who lent him some pictures to copy, but latterly became more reserved when he recognised a future rival, and withdrew his countenance, blaming him undeservedly for selling some of the copies made from his work. From minia- tures he went into oil-portraits, and numerous commissions followed his efforts, some of the leading citizens recognising the young 222 ART IN SCOTLAND. artist. He contracted an intimacy with John Clerk, afterwards the learned and humorous Lord Eldin, who was then no richer than his artist friend. It is related of Clerk that on one occasion he invited Henry to dine with him at his lodgings, and on the arrival of the pair at the dinner-table, found the landlady spreading the cloth and laying out three herrings and three potatoes, although he had told her that as a gentleman was to dine with him there ought to have been six herrings and a corresponding number of potatoes. At this time he made some experiments in landscape and history, but did not carry them further than mere trials. When he was the age of twenty-two, a young and pretty-looking widow called at his studio for the purpose of having her portrait painted. The rather dangerous experiment had a perfectly natural result. Her appearance was somewhat familiar to the krtist, from having seen her in the course of some of his walks. He produced a very charming portrait of the lady, who was as sensible and good as she was good-looking, and within a month after their first acquaintance, gave him her hand in marriage, together with a hand- some fortune. Her name was Ann, Countess Leslie, being the widow of a French count, and daughter of Peter Edgar of Bridge- lands. After spending some years at Deanhaugh House, the property of his wife, with a view towards improving himself in his art he went to London, bearing an introduction to Reynolds, to whom he submitted some specimens of his work. It is said that he wrought for a few weeks in his studio, after which Sir Joshua strongly advised him to proceed to Rome, and at the same time, being un- aware of his circumstances, generously offered to advance him the necessary means. Acting upon this advice, in company with his wife he spent two years studying in Rome, where, as the bearer of introductory letters from Reynolds, he was well received, espe- cially by his countryman Gavin Hamilton, and the then popular Pompeo Battone. He returned to Scotland and settled again in his native city in 1787, from which time onwards he took his position as the only eminent portrait-painter in Scotland, much to SIR HENRY RAEBURN. 223 the chagrin of Martin, who spoke of him as the lad in George Street, remarking that he painted better before he went to Rome. During his Roman visit he was so fascinated by the sculptor's art that for a short time he entertained the idea of devoting himself to sculpture instead of painting — which, however, he did not follow up further than by an experimental medallion of himself.^ On the death of his elder brother William, he succeeded to St Bernard's, then a picturesque locality, where wooded banks margined the clear stream of the Water of Leith, and to which he removed from Deanhaugh. In 1795 he built his large and handsome studio at York Place, the upper flat of which formed a gallery lit from the roof, measuring 55 by 35 feet, and 45 in height, in which some of the exhibitions of the Society of Artists were held, as well as the early ones of the Royal Institution. Allan Cunningham speaks of the fine appearance of this gallery, and how he was struck with the portraits of some Highland chiefs — •* All plaided and plumed, in their tartan array " — in close proximity to which were others of grave, stem-browed Lowlanders, and groups of ladies and children, with snatches of landscape. After his return from Italy he received a commission from the Harveian Society of Edinburgh, for a portrait of William Inglis, one of their original members. Soon afterwards, for the same Society he did a portrait of their second president, Alexander Wood, and another of Professor Duncan for the Royal Public Dispensary, of which that gentleman was the founder. These were probably the first works executed after his return from Rome : they attracted considerable attention in Edinburgh, and were succeeded by the portraits of Principal William Robertson, Dr Adam Ferguson, and Lord Provost Elder.^ He began to ex- hibit in the Royal Academy in London in 1792, in which year he showed portraits of a lady and a gentleman. These were followed in 1798, when he was in the full bloom of his popularity, by his 1 Chambers's Journal, 1832. 2 Mr Andrew's Life. 224 ART IN SCOTLAND. portrait of Sir Walter Farquhar, in 1799 by a portrait of a gentle- man, and in 1802 by that of Dr Rutherford. After an interval of eight years his name again appears in the catalogue attached to the portrait of "Walter Scott, Esq., author of the 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' &c."; and in 181 1 and 1812 he exhibited, respectively, the Rev. Sir H. Wellwood Moncreiff, the Chief of the Macdonells, &c., after which he was a frequent contributor. ^ The portrait of Scott was painted for Constable the publisher, and afterwards passed into the collection at Dalkeith Palace. After its exhibition an engraver ventured a mezzotint of the portrait, which he an- ticipated would be a great success ; regarding which Cunningham thus relates the painter's remarks, "The thing is damned, sir, gone, sunk — nothing could be more unfortunate. When I put up my Scott for sale, another man put up his Molyneux. You know the taste of our London beer-suckers — the African sells in thousands, and the Caledonian won't move." In the early exhibitions of his native city he took an active interest, and contributed to the first exhibition in 1808 of the Society of Scottish Artists, of which he was elected president in succession to George Watson, in the year before it was so unfor- tunately broken up. As already mentioned, he was one of those who honourably endeavoured to prevent that, and also the divi- sion of the profits among the artists by themselves ; and he also espoused the cause of the artists in their early dissatisfaction with the management of the Royal Institution. In the year 181 4 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in London — an honour which was conferred on him without the usual canvas for votes, and at a time when applicants for the distinction were particularly numerous. His great-grandson, Mr W. R. Andrew, quotes the following from a letter addressed to a brother artist : " They know I am on the list : if they choose to elect me without solicitation, it will be the more honourable to me, and I will think the more of it ; but if it can only be obtained by means of solici- tation and canvassing, I must give up all hopes of it, for I would ^ Royal Academy Catalogues. SIR HENRY RAEBURN. 22$ think it unfair to employ those means." ^ In the year following he was elected full Academician. In the autumn of 1822 George IV. visited Scotland, on which occasion the artist, along with Captain Adam Ferguson, was knighted at Hopetoun House, in the presence of the noblest in Scotland. It is reported that the king was so pleased with Raeburn, that he remarked to Sir Walter Scott that he would have made him a baronet but for the injustice which it might have done to the memory of Reynolds.^ On the 5th of the following month of October, his fellow-artists entertained him at a dinner, which was presided over by the venerable Alexander Nasmyth. He was appointed his Majesty's Limner for Scotland in the following May, and died after a week's illness, from no visible complaint, on the 8th of July 1823, the day on which the notification of his appointment was received in Edinburgh, at the age of sixty-seven. Among other distinctions conferred upon him, he was elected a member of the Imperial Academy of Florence; honorary member of the New York Academy of the Fine Arts in 181 7; honorary member of the South Carolina Art Academy in 1821 ; and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He excelled in archery, was a keen golfer and angler, and besides being fond of experimenting in boat-building, took much interest in architecture. He planned and built the beautiful suburb of Stockbridge, in which he lived, and which was sometimes called Raeburnsville. Few men were better calculated to command respect in society.- He had a tall, manly, handsome figure, a fine open countenance with dark lustrous eyes, of gentlemanly and agreeable manners, and possessed an extensive command of anecdote, well told and happily introduced. To enumerate his portraits would be to name the most eminent men in Scotland, including the poet Burns, whose portrait ^ he painted about 1803 for Cadell and Davies, which is now unfortunately lost. 1 Mr Andrew erroneously mentions (p. 68) that this election in 1814 was ' ' on the occasion of the very first picture sent by him " there. ■^ Mr Andrew's Life. 3 Priced by Raeburn at twenty guineas.— Letter in ' Scotsman,' Oct. i, 1889. P 226 The portrait of Scott was one of his earliest exhibited ; another of the same was his last ; and it has to be noted that the portraits painted in the closing years of his life were unquestionably his best. Dr John Brown has said of Raeburn's own likeness that no better portrait exists, and is no way inferior to that of his " dear little wife, comely, and sweet, and nice, sitting in the open air with a white head-dress, her face away to one side of the picture, and her shapely, bare, unjewelled arms and hands lying crossed upon her lap." He was ever ready to aid merit, and to give a helping hand to a young artist. It is related of him that on one occasion while taking his usual morning walk in his garden, he saw a little boy who had clambered over the wall, holding a piece of paper and evidently frightened for the result of his trespassing. The paper showed a drawing of a Gothic window in the library, and the budding artist was henceforth encouraged, and allowed free access. The trespassing youth was the afterwards famous David Roberts. Regarding his practice, he generally had three or four sitters in a day, whom he seldom detained more than two hours, often less. He preferred painting the head and hands only, and for this he was satisfied with four or five sittings. He never " drew in " his work, but wrought entirely with his brush, beginning with the fore- head, and after indicating the chin, marked in the other features. Quoting from one of his sitters, Cunningham relates how, " having placed me in a chair on a platform at the end of his painting-room in the position required, he set up his easel beside me, with the canvas ready to receive the colour. When he saw all was right, he took his palette and his brush, retreated back step by step, with his face towards me, till he was nigh at the other end of the room. He stood and studied for a minute more, then came up to the canvas, and without looking at me, wrought upon it with colour for some time. Having done this, he retreated in the same manner, studied my looks at that distance for about another minute, then came hastily up to the canvas and painted a few minutes more." Also : " I found him well informed, with no pro- SIR HENRY RAEBURN. 22/ fessional pedantry about him; indeed no one could have imagined him a painter till he took up the brush and palette. He con- versed with me upon mechanics and shipbuilding, and if I can depend upon my own imperfect judgment, he had studied archi- tecture with great success." Sir Walter Scott also thus describes him : " His conversation was rich, and he held his story well. His manly stride backwards as he went to contemplate his work at a proper distance, and when resolved on the necessary point to be touched, his step forward was magnificent. I see him in my mind's eye with his hand under his chin contemplating his picture, which position always brought me in mind of a figure of Jupiter which I have somewhere seen." It is often stated that his style was based upon that of Reynolds, but there is only that similarity and breadth of effect which is the characteristic of all great art. He was only thrice in London, but of course the works of Reynolds were not unknown to him in his younger days. " In the square touch in heads, hands, and accessories of Raeburn," says Wilkie, " I see the very counterpart of Velasquez." Among his last works were a series of half-lengths of distinguished friends, painted for his own pleasure. The late Mr Drummond, R.S.A., gives an amusing anecdote of a portrait in mezzotint of George IV. after Raeburn, which monarch never sat to the artist. The publisher of this print had brought out a number of portraits after Raeburn, and thinking that one of his Majesty would be a good speculation on the occasion of the royal visit to Scotland in 1822, looked over his stock of plates, and selected that of the courtly Professor Hope, who was sitting in a dignified sort of way. This he sent to the engraver, had the head polished out and replaced, and a star put on the breast, the result being a right royal portrait of the first gentleman in Europe.^ It is said that late in Hfe he thought of establishing himself in London, but was dissuaded by Sir Thomas Lawrence, whom he consulted. This was probably in 18 10, when he was introduced at 1 Society of Scottish Antiquaries, vol. ii. 228 ART IN SCOTLAND. the Crown and Anchor by Wilkie to Flaxman, Beechy, and other Royal Academicians. The Messrs Redgrave, who relate this circumstance, give rather an unfair criticism of his work. While stating that " little opportunity has been afforded us of seeing many of his works," they further add, " it may fairly be assumed that he owed part of the reputation which he enjoyed to his some- what isolated position as the head of his profession in Scotland, and might not have been able to sustain it in London." ^ Raeburn is well represented in the Scottish National Gallery, five of the works there being the property of the Board of Manu- factures, and three belonging to the Academy. Prominent among these are, the charming head of the beautiful Mrs R. Scott Mon- creiff, so often reproduced by the budding artists of Edinburgh ; the fine half-length seated portrait of Mrs Kennedy of Dunure, painted with his usual breadth and clearness — a successful treat- ment of a very difficult scheme of colour ; and the massive Spanish- looking portrait of Dr Adam, the outstretched hand in which is a perfect marvel of broad and masterly handling. His works gene- rally stand well, although the first-mentioned of these three is con- siderably cracked in parts. An exhibition of his paintings was instituted by some gentlemen of taste in 1876, when 325 of his works, collected from every available source, were shown in the galleries of the Royal Scottish Academy. It was very highly appreciated and well attended ; and although many of his finest works were absent, the exhibition not only stood the severe test, but largely augmented the fame of the distinguished artist.^ Next to Raeburn in point of date was George Watson, son of John Watson of Overmains in Berwickshire, and Frances Veitch ^ Redgraves' Century of Painters. 2 At the sale of the family portraits in 1877, his own portrait brought 510 guineas ; Lady Raeburn, 950 ; his son on a pony, 410 ; Sir Walter Scott, 310 ; study of a boy with cherries, 240 ; study of a child, 280 ; Mrs Johnston, '* Con- templation," 185; and Mrs Hamilton, 225. At the sale of the collection of Laurent Richard, the portrait of a Greenwich Pensioner was purchased for the Louvre for 2400 francs, in 1886. In 1887, Raeburn 's portrait of himself was sold for 350 guineas ; Lady Raeburn's, 810 ; and Henry Raeburn's, 3CX). GEORGE WATSON — SIR J. W. GORDON. 229 of Elliott, born on his father's estate in 1767. He went to London at the age of eighteen with an introduction to Sir Joshua Reynolds, in whose studio he wrought for about two years, having previously received some instruction from Alexander Nasmyth in Edinburgh. On his return to Scotland he began to practise portrait-painting on his own account in the capital, and about the same time married Rebecca Smellie, the eldest daughter of William Smellie, a printer, and one of the founders of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries. He was the first president of the Society of Scottish Artists till 181 2, and was also the first president of the fifteen artists who inaugurated the Scottish Academy, of which he was one of the most ardent promoters. On the dissolution of the Society, the members presented him with a piece of plate in appreciation of his services. Although by no means equal to Raeburn, he held an honourable position in Edinburgh during the latter years of that eminent artist's Hfe, and has left numerous excellent portraits of very great firmness and breadth of execution. On account of the impression which he made in the Royal Academy exhibitions, he was invited to London about 1815, where he painted portraits of the Dean of Canterbury, Lord and Lady Combermere, and a characteristic one of Sir Benjamin West, the president of the Royal Academy, gifted by his son, W. Smellie Watson, to the Scottish National Gallery : a duplicate of the latter was sent to the Academy of Art at South Carolina, of which he was elected an honorary member. The Scottish National Gallery contains his portrait of Alexander Skirving the artist, and the Scottish Museum of Antiquities possesses one of William Smellie of natural history fame. He was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy in London, where he made his first appearance in 1808 with a portrait of an old Scotch gentleman, and a Young Lady at Toilette. His own portrait was exhibited there in 181 1, where also at a later period he exhibited a portrait of Sir Evan Macgregor, which was highly praised by Wilkie. George Watson was followed by his nephew, the distinguished Sir John Watson Gordon, born in 1788, whose work, although not 230 ART IN SCOTLAND. SO broad in its touch as Raeburn's, was, especially in his male portraits, very strong and powerful. Of the same old landed family as his uncle, he was by his grandmother on the father's side a distant relative of Sir Walter Scott ; and among his mother's rela- tions were Principal Robertson the historian, "Shipwreck" Falconer, and Andrew Henderson, one of the Scottish Reformers. His father, who was a naval officer, intended that he should join the army. After a fair education, being too young by some months to apply for a cadetship at Woolwich, he was permitted to employ the interval by attending the Trustees' Academy, where it was not to be wondered at that under the influence of John Graham he became infected by a passion for art, associating with Burnet and Wilkie, who were his fellow-students there. No doubt, also, the example of his uncle, who was then in a good position as an artist, further induced him to follow art instead of arms, and so for the succeed- ing four years he became an industrious and enthusiastic student. Under the tuition of Graham, the supervision of his uncle, and the encouragement of Raeburn, free from all influence of foreign style or mannerism, young Watson gradually developed the innate national character, until his works became also typical of the school which he represented. At first, with the enthusiasm of youth, he resolved to follow the historical and fancy style of painting, and sent to the 1808 exhibition in Edinburgh a subject from the *Lay of the Last Minstrel.' For many years afterwards he continued to paint a similar class of subject with varying success. Although this desire never left him, he soon found that his forte lay in por- traiture, in which he early began to distinguish himself. There being several artists then in Edinburgh of the name of Watson, in 1826 he assumed in addition that of Gordon, and in the follow- ing year exhibited at the Royal Academy in London a portrait of a grandson of the Earl of Mansfield, and Lady Emily Murray of the same family. In 1831, in the same exhibition, appeared his portrait of Sir Walter Scott, and three years afterwards he became a regular and important contributor. He was elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1841, and on the death of Sir William SIR J. WATSON GORDON. 23 1 Allan, was unanimously elected president of the Royal Scottish Academy, of which he was one of the most zealous supporters, re- ceiving in the same year the appointment of her Majesty's Limner for Scotland, with the accompanying honour of knighthood. He was elected a Royal Academician in 185 1, and continued till his death, on the ist of June 1864, to take a deep interest in all art matters connected with the city in which he held such an honour- able position. Up till within a few years of his decease he painted with all his wonted vigour, and the works which he has left are as truly representative of the Scottish painter as they are of his Scottish subjects. While the delineation of his male characters may favourably compare with any other artist of the school to which he belonged, he has never approached Raeburn in the grace and beauty of womankind, or Harvey in his representations of the innocence of childhood, although the very few subject- pictures which he has left are mostly confined to the frolics of the latter. Among his numerous portraits may be mentioned, in the Archers' Hall at Edinburgh, a full-length of John Earl of Hope- toun, Captain-General of the Scottish Archers, on the visit to Scotland of George IV. ; and another of Earl Dalhousie, who filled the same office on the occasion of King William pre- senting them their standards as his Scottish Body-guard. The Writers to the Signet possess a full-length of Charles Hope, Lord Justice-General ; and that body and the Faculty of Advocates have each a portrait of Lord Justice-General the Right Honour- able David Boyle. In the Scottish National Gallery he is repre- sented by portraits of Sir William Gibson -Craig of Riccarton; Henry, Lord Cockburn; the Right Honourable Andrew, Lord Rutherfurd ; Lord Eversley, K.C.B. (painted for the Royal Scot- tish Academy, and presented by the artist) ; Lord Provost Sir William Johnston; and several others, including an unfinished head of Sir Walter Scott. One of his most successful heads was that of James Smith of Jordanhill, in the possession of the Duke of Argyll, for whom it was painted. In 1855 he was awarded a 232 ART IN SCOTLAND. first-class gold medal at the Paris Salon. His diploma work at the Royal Academy is from " Auld Lang Syne." Although at one period of his life Alexander Nasmyth had a considerable practice as a portrait-painter, that artist's work has most closely identified his name with the art of landscape. Andrew Geddes was born about 1789, a native of Edinburgh, and the only son in a family of six children. His father David was an auditor of the Excise, who, besides possessing great taste, a few fine pictures, and a collection of books and prints, was in con- stant correspondence with Thomas Phillip, a leading printseller of the time, and on terms of friendship with Colin Macfarquhar, whose ample means enabled him to indulge in the collecting of engravings, among which were numerous specimens of Rem- brandt. His father being desirous that Andrew should become a good classical scholar, placed him at the university after complet- ing his ordinary education, where some years were devoted to Greek and Latin, a period of time which the artist always spoke of as being lost. On leaving the university, he began life in the same office with his father, where he remained nearly five years, during which all his leisure hours were given to copying pictures lent him by John Clerk (Lord Eldin), and at which time he made a reproduction from a copy of Correggio's Madonna del ConigUo. After his father's death in 1809, he resolved to be- come an artist, having previously visited London during a holi- day, in the course of which he saw all the collections there, under the guidance of his father's friend Antony Stewart the miniature- painter. When about the age of twenty, he returned to London and entered the school of the Royal Academy, where Haydon and Jackson were then studying, and where he first sat down beside his countryman Wilkie, with whom he contracted an en- during friendship. After some study there (according to his wife a few years, but probably not more than one), he returned to Edinburgh about 18 10, when he began to practise professionally, chiefly at portraits. Between this date and 18 14 he painted, among others, Lord Hermand, the Earl of Buchan, Sir John and ANDREW GEDDES. 233 "Lady Dick of Prestonfield, Mr Douglas of Orchardton, Henry Mackenzie, and Dr Chalmers. His studio was at 47 York Place, and latterly he had been making occasional visits to London dur- ing the season of the picture sales, buying on his own account and that of others. He also at this time began the practice of etch- ing. He now made an excursion to Paris by way of Flanders, in com-pany with John Burnet and other two friends, making some sketches in the Louvre during his stay. On returning to London, he entered into an arrangement with Burnet for painting an altar- piece of the Ascension for the church of St James, Garlick Hill, of which church Burnet's brother was curate. This picture, like his later Christ and the Woman of Samaria, was done more for fame than for remuneration, and was evidently painted under the influence of the great Assumption by Titian at Venice. He had then apartments in Conduit Street, but divided his time between London and Edinburgh, where he still retained a considerable practice. This necessitated occasional journeys between the two capitals, one of which was made in company with Sir D. Wilkie, and William Collins the artist, in 1822, when the latter got married to Miss Geddes.i Of this journey, one of Wilkie's letters con- tains a characteristic notice : " We got through our journey fa- mously, and were less fatigued than we expected. The only sub- ject of regret was, that Geddes's snuff-box was done by the time we got to Berwick. I was not asked to join, but the box passed between Geddes and Collins, and from Collins to Geddes, inces- santly. You will imagine I did not feel much for their mis- fortune." 2 In the Royal Academy of London, so early as 1806, when only in his seventeenth year, he exhibited St John in the Wilderness. This was followed in 1808 by a Girl (candle-light), and numerous portraits in 1813, 18 15, and 1816, in the latter of which he 1 It is not stated whether this lady was related to Geddes the artist. She was a sister of Mrs Carpenter the portrait-painter, and related to the theo- logian Dr Geddes. — Collins's Life. 2 Life of William Collins, R. A., by Wilkie Collins, 1848. 234 -^RT IN SCOTLAND. showed the portrait of his friend Wilkie. In 182 1 his well-known picture of the Discovery of the Regalia was exhibited in London, and also in Edinburgh. This work, which is now in the Scottish National Gallery, includes, among the portraits of other celebrities, that of Sir Walter Scott, the sketch for the head of which was purchased by the art amateur Sir James Stuart of AUanbank, and is now in the Scottish Portrait Gallery. His two large pictures of the family of the Duke of Rutland were finished in 1827, and about the same date he did a half-length of the Duke of York, being the last for which his Royal Highness gave sittings, and which has been engraved by Hodgetts. He was married in the following year ; soon after which, in company with his wife, he set out on a long-contemplated tour on the Continent, in the course of which he visited Paris, Lyons, Florence, and Rome, picking up his friend Andrew Wilson and his family at Genoa. During this visit he copied Titian's Sacred and Profane Love, in the Borghese Palace, and Veronese's St John Preaching and Queen Helena, in addition to portraits of Gibson and the Roman historical painter Camuccini. He also renewed his acquaintance with Turner at Subiaco, where that great artist painted his last exhibited picture at the Royal Academy, the Ruins of Nero's Tomb and the Mountains of Carrara. The following winter (1829) he lived in the house which had been occupied by Nicolo Poussin on the Monte Pinciano, and painted portraits of Cardinal Weld, the Ladies Mary and Gwendoline Talbot (afterwards the Princesses Doria and Borghese), and James Morier, the author of * Haji Baba.' On account of his health he left for Naples, and after visiting Sorrento, Capri, and Salerno, returned homewards in the autumn, lingering long at Venice and Siena, where he made several copies, including Titian's Flora. While waiting on the preparation of the house which he had leased in Berners Street in 1 83 1, he copied Lord Egerton's Titian's Diana and Acteon, which copy was afterwards sold at Christie's for 350 guineas. His next important work was Christ and the Woman of Samaria, after which he made a short visit to Holland. He expired in the ANDREW GEDDES. 235 arms of his wife on the 5th of May 1844, the anniversary of their marriage, having suffered for many years from consumption. Geddes was possessed of an intimate knowledge of old Italian art, as an authority on which he was frequently consulted. Al- though he painted the few subject-pictures mentioned and one or two others, as well as an occasional landscape, he is chiefly known as a portrait - painter. His small full -lengths are fine examples of broad painting, combined with high finish, making the spectator feel that the scale in which a work of art is executed is of no consequence. His colour, always fine, changed in his latter period to a warmer hue, probably owing to a more intimate acquaintance with the works of the old masters. The head of his mother is extremely quaint and characteristic. That of himself suggests something of the style of Sir Thomas Lawrence. The small full-length of George Sanders the artist is a fine specimen of the beautiful colour and breadth of treatment with which he im- bued this class of his work. His Summer, a bright-faced girl in a straw hat, is glowing with the colour of Rubens ; and his Hagar, rather browned, evinces the influence of the old masters in its tone and style of drawing.^ His small picture entitled Dry Read- ing, in the Vernon collection of the National Gallery in London, is said to be the portraits of George Terry and his wife, the daughter of Alexander Nasmyth the landscape-painter. At the sale of the Gibson-Craig collection in Edinburgh in 1887, his portrait of John Clerk, Lord Eldin, was sold for ;£'27, 5s., and two sisters of the same for jQz'^^ us. each. Among his engraved works may be mentioned Lord Camperdown and Dr Chalmers, in mezzotint by Ward ; a small whole - length of " Man of Feeling " Mackenzie, in line by Rhodes ; Mr Oswald of Auchencruive, by Hodgetts ; and the Discovery of the Regalia, besides the portrait of the Duke of York. His last picture, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1843, a large allegory of Spring, could hardly be expected to be a success, as he was then suffering acutely from the insidious disease which ^ These in Scottish National Gallery. 236 ART IN SCOTLAND. terminated fatally in the following year. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1832, for which he had entered his name unsuccessfully many years previous, when he felt the disappointment so keenly that he did not get over his non-election for long after. His own portrait is preserved in the Scottish Museum of Antiquities,^ to which it was bequeathed by Dr David Laing, and was engraved by the late Mr Leconte for * Etchings by Wilkie and Geddes.' As an etcher of some forty small plates, Geddes occupies a remarkable position, being perhaps, with the exception of Wilkie, the most successful practitioner of that art in Britain in his time, and even for long after. With a thorough knowledge and appre- ciation of the value of the dry point, he combined a free and graceful use of the needle. Among the specimens which he has left are, a delicate and rich head of Alexander Nasmyth, a head of his mother, a charming little girl with a pear, the head of an Edinburgh auctioneer, and a luminous one entitled Give the Devil his Due. His well-known landscape plate, representing a broad tree overshadowing a cottage with a wooden gate and little bridge in the foreground, is exceedingly rich and brilliant. The first state bears no signature and has the sky marred by an ex- periment seemingly made with sand-paper. In point of genuine etching free of burr, it is questionable if these have been sur- passed by any of the recent professors of this now popular branch ofart.2 Among the Scottish artists who were conspicuous in the eyes of the public at the time of the foundation of the Scottish Aca- demy, none stood out more prominently or deserved higher commendation than William Nicholson. A native of Newcastle- on-Tyne, born in 1784, he was long resident in Edinburgh, where he was foremost among those who resolved to abandon their ^ At present deposited in the Scottish Portrait Gallery. 2 This sketch of Geddes differs in some respects from other brief notices which have appeared. The main facts as here given are taken from a short memoir printed by his widow for private circulation. WILLIAM NICHOLSON. 237 connection with the Royal Institution. Fortunately for himself, as well as for the infant Academy, he was placed in such circum- stances of worldly ease as to be totally independent, and, with a fortitude which knew no quailing, he stood forward and nobly sustained the combat in which hauteur^ pride, and arrogance sought to crush the rising spirit of the young Academicians.^ He was the Academy's first secretary from 1826 till 1829, and treasurer for the following year, which position he resigned in consequence of the great amount of time required to fulfil the duties of that office. While his large portraits possess great power and truth of expression, his reputation chiefly rests upon those executed in water-colours, which were prized in his time to such an extent that they procured him the patronage of all the lovers of art among the nobility and gentry of Scotland. A good example of this class of his work is the portrait of Hugh W. Williams in the Scottish National Gallery, which has all the qualities of a high-class work : excellent in colour, broadly painted, and well drawn, it possesses a high degree of finish which does not detract from the general impression. His miniatures are delicate and refined, and he is justly celebrated for his etch- ings of many of the Scottish literati of his day, which unite the freedom and richness of the painter-etcher with the delicacy of the regular picture-engraver's work. These, which were published accompanied by short biographical notices of the individuals, contained, among others, portraits of Robert Burns and his corre- spondent George Thomson, Professor Playfair, Bishop Cameron, Sir Walter Scott, the Ettrick Shepherd, Raeburn, Jeffrey, and Dr Carlyle. He spent the last twenty-five years of his life in Edinburgh, in the latter part of which he was for some time visibly declining. He was shortly before death considered to be recovering, but a sudden attack of fever terminated his life, after an illness of eight days, on the i6th of August 1844, in the sixtieth year of his age. One of the Scottish portrait-painters who early migrated to ^ Obituary Notice in Art Journal, 1844. 238 ART IN SCOTLAND. London and soon took a fair position in the metropolis, was James Tannock, born in 1784 in Kilmarnock, where he was originally a shoemaker. After serving for some time with a house-painter, he received instruction from Alexander Nasmyth, and went to London in his twenty-sixth year, where he attended the Royal Academy schools. After two or three years' study he began as a portrait- painter in Leicester Square, and made his first appearance as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy in 18 13 with a portrait of a gentleman, after which he was a frequent exhibitor. For several years after 1818, the name of W. Tannock appears in the cata- logues in addition to that of James, and to which is attached the same address. James died in London in 1863, and among other good portraits which he has left are those of Henry Bell, the famous steam-engineer; George Joseph Bell, professor of Scots Law in Edinburgh; and George Chalmers, F.R.S. — the second of these being in the Scottish Portrait Gallery ; all are in oil, and life-size to the waist. John Graham, better known as Graham Gilbert, one of the foremost Scottish portrait-painters of his day, and whose works will always retain a deservedly high position, was the son of David Graham, a West India merchant, and Agnes M'Aslan, both of Glasgow, where the artist was born in 1794 in the then fashionable Stockwell Street. After receiving a good education at the gram- mar-school he occupied a desk in his father's office, but at the age of twenty-four obtained the paternal consent to follow art as a profession, for which he had shown an early predilection, and became a student at the Royal Academy in London, where, in 181 9, at the termination of his first year's study, he obtained a silver medal for drawing from the antique. Two years' further study secured him the gold medal for a painting of the Prodigal Son. The following two years were spent in Italy, and after his return he remained a short time in London, where he exhibited at the Academy in 1823 three portraits. He settled down as a portrait-painter in Edinburgh four years afterwards, when the Academy there was just forming. He became a member of the JOHN GRAHAM GILBERT. 239 Royal Institution, but seceded from that body to join the Acad- emy, taking rank as an Academician in 1830. He contributed a head of Rebecca to the first exhibition of the Dilettanti Society in his native city in 1828, which was then noticed for its grace and colour, qualities in which he always excelled. To these and the Scottish Academy's exhibitions he afterwards regularly contrib- uted. It is said that while in Edinburgh he was commissioned to paint a portrait of Lord Jeffrey, in which he was unsuccessful, when the commission was transferred to Colvin Smith, recently returned from Italy, who made the only successful portrait of Jeffrey, whose face possessed some peculiar quality difficult to interpret. Graham after this returned to Glasgow, and among many other sitters had Miss Gilbert, niece of Mr Andrew Gilbert of Yorkhill, to whom he got married in 1834. On Mr Gilbert's death, the niece succeeded to the estate, which was of great value, and with her husband removed from St Vin- cent Street to Yorkhill, the latter assuming the name of Gilbert in terms of the settlement of the estate. After settling down in the practice of his art at Yorkhill, he made several visits to the Continent accompanied by his wife, and, along with Mr Buchanan of Stanley Mills, visited Spain, in the course of which he formed a collection of pictures, representa- tive of the Italian, Flemish, and Dutch schools, which, along with many of his own works, were deposited in the Glasgow Corpora- tion Galleries on the death of Mrs Gilbert in 1877. He took an active interest in the advancement of local art, and assisted by personal effort and by contributions of his own works to the walls of the local exhibitions of the West of Scotland Academy, of which he was president. He afterwards materially aided in the formation of the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. He some- times painted fancy subjects; but in these he was never very successful, as he seems to have been wanting in imagination : he is thus chiefly known as a painter of portraits and fancy heads, and in those of ladies, more especially, is probably unsurpassed by any artist in the qualities of graceful drawing, beauty of colour, 240 . ART IN SCOTLAND. and tenderness of sentiment, rivalling in these respects some of the most eminent of the old Itahan masters. Among his exhibits at the Royal Scottish Academy may be noticed his portrait of Sir John Watson Gordon (1855), painted for that institution, and which in the following year was exhibited in London. A noble portrait of a lady in a blue dress was one of the Scottish Academy's attractions in 1862; and in the same year he was represented at the London International Exhibition. His portrait of Mr Lawson (1866) is thus criticised in the 'Art Journal' : "It displays that power of colour, clear, rich, and deep, which Mr Gilbert possesses in the highest measure, as if his place of study had been from youth to age on the shores of the bright Adriatic. Mr Lawson looks, in his official robes, like a doge of old Venice ; and the notion is sustained by the Venetian sweetness and lucidity of the colouring, and the look of thorough completeness and mastership about the whole work, as though it belonged to an earHer and a greater school altogether." At Yorkhill House, which passed into the possession of Mrs Gilbert's nephew and nieces (Mrs Graham Gilbert having no family), are four family portraits, half-lengths : of these, one represents the artist's wife in a dark dress, with black lace sleeves, the pendant being that of her sister in white satin, both of the greatest beauty; the other two represent Mrs Gilbert's uncle, Mr Andrew Gilbert, and his sister — the head of the former, more especially, being probably one of the finest heads ever painted in Scotland, with all the power of Raeburn at his best. A slow and careful worker, he surrounded himself by casts of the most beautiful heads of antiquity, and frequently wrought with one of his favourite old masters beside him, as if to derive inspiration and measure his strength with the successful efforts of the men of old. Gibson the sculptor, one of his most intimate friends, was an occasional guest at York- hill, where the painter died of heart-disease, after a brief illness, on the 4th of June 1866. Colvin Smith, one of the seceders from the Royal Institution, who held a prominent position in Edinburgh as a portrait-painter. JOHN AND PATRICK SYME. 241 was a native of Brechin, where he was born in 1795. After studying at the Royal Academy, he spent some time in earnest and enthusiastic study in Italy, where he made many excellent copies from the old masters, especially from Titian — and from Rubens, on his way home. He commenced portrait-painting in Edin- burgh in 1827, when he took possession of the house and studio vacated by Raeburn, and his influential family connection and artistic talents soon led him into a most successful career. He painted many prominent men of his time, including " Man of Feel- ing " Mackenzie, and Scott : the latter he repeated some twenty times, on seven of which the poet and novelist gave him sittings. His portrait of Lord Jeffrey, already mentioned, he succeeded with only once, and his portrait of Scott has been spoken of by his contemporaries as one of the best of the many which were painted of that distinguished individual. Colvin Smith's portraits are generally reckoned faithful likenesses, well drawn and simply treated. He is represented in the Scottish National Gallery by Lieutenant- General Sir Ralph Abercromby, Viscount Melville, and the Right Honourable John Hope, Lord Justice-Clerk. He died in Edinburgh on the 21st July 1875. Two painters of the name of Syme appear on the list of original members of the Scottish Academy. John (1795-1861) was an assistant to Raeburn, and painted many excellent portraits in oil. His very broad and characteristic portrait of the Rev. Dr Barclay, a rather famous Scotchman of his day, is in the Scottish National Gallery ; and his own and that of Lord Cockburn are possessed by the Academy, of which he always maintained that he was the original suggester and founder. Patrick Syme (1774- 1845) 3.1so sometimes painted portraits, but was almost exclusively known as a flower-painter, whose productions in that line received high praise in the early exhibitions of the Society of Artists from 1808 onwards. He was also a teacher of art in Edinburgh, where in 1 8 10 he published 'Practical Directions for learning Flower- drawing,' at the price of two guineas, at the time favourably received. Four years later he published a translation of Werner's Q 242 ART IN SCOTLAND. * Nomenclature of Colours,' accompanied by diagrams. He was married to a daughter of Lord Balmuto, one of the Lords of Session, and lived in a house in Queen Street, now occupied by the site of the Philosophical Institution. He for some time filled the post of drawing-master at the well-known Dollar Academy, where his son was educated. The latter was the quite recently deceased eminent botanist, Dr John Thomas Irvine Boswell, who spent twenty years rewriting Sowerby's 'Botany,' and who dropped his father's name for that of the Boswell family when he succeeded to and settled down on that estate. William Smellie Watson, the son of the first president of the Scottish Academy (i 796-1874), was another of the foundation members of that institution, and attained a good position as a portrait-painter in Edinburgh. Trained at first under his father, he went to London in his nineteenth year, passing five years in the schools of the Academy there, and about another with Wilkie. To the first Scottish Academy's exhibition he contributed no less than thirteen works, and is represented in the Scottish National Gallery by a small picture entitled the Student. He had a taste for ornithology, and bequeathed his collection of birds to the Edinburgh University Museum. Among other portrait-painters practising in Edinburgh prior to the foundation of the Scottish Academy, may be mentioned Thomas Eraser, whose portrait of the well-known C. K. Sharpe is in the Scottish Portrait Gallery, dated 1829, who died in 1851, having exhibited at the Royal Institution, and subsequently at the Academy's exhibitions up till so late as 1843 > James Saxon, of Manchester birth (died about 181 7), who settled for a few years in Edinburgh, where he painted a portrait of Sir Walter Scott in 1805; one of " Crihee the taylor, dealer in old shoes, broker, and picture pimp, the son of an Aberdeen appleman, ironically represented in the character of a connoisseur criticising a picture," and " the honest old Edinburgh eggman, companion to ditto"— so catalogued in the Newhall list of 1808.^ J. S. 1 Gentle Shepherd, ed. 1808. W. YELLOWLEES— G. SANDERS. 243 Harvie was resident in Edinburgh from 1804 till 181 1, and painted a portrait of the first Marquis of Hastings, in the Scottish Portrait Gallery : he also exhibited one of the amateur artist the Earl of Buchan, at the London Academy in 181 1. J. T. Nairne was one of the Associated artists : he exhibited a portrait of Dr Adam Ferguson in 18 12, and others in the two following years, a duplicate of one of which, George Dempster the agriculturist (181 2), is in the Scottish Portrait Gallery. William Yellowlees, known as the "Raeburn in little" from the usual small scale of his portraits, which are little larger than miniatures, was born at Mellerstain in Berwickshire in 1796, and studied under WiUiam Shiels the animal-painter (i 785-1857). He was one of the foundation members of the Scottish Academy, practised in Edinburgh for about fifteen years, and then went to London, where in 1831 he exhibited in the Royal Academy portraits of Lieutenant-General Sir Herbert Taylor and a Lady and Child, and also executed some commissions for Prince Albert. His heads, although of small size, are very remarkable for their great breadth* of treatment, beautiful colour, and fine drawing: one of the Rev. Dr Jamieson is in the Scottish Portrait Gallery, and several family portraits are possessed by one of his relatives at Jedburgh. Sir William Fettes Douglas is the owner of a fine specimen which was shown at the loan section of the International Exhibition in Edinburgh in 1886. He died in London about 1856. The now extinct art of miniature-painting had also numerous Scottish practitioners in the early part of the present century, many of whom, however, went to London. Among the earliest and most important of these was George Sanders, born in Kinghom in 1774. He was apprenticed to a coach-painter in Edinburgh of considerable taste, where Sir William Allan, the future president of the Royal Scottish Academy, was his fellow-workman. After serving his apprenticeship he began to teach drawing and to practise as a miniature-painter, employing what leisure he had in painting marine subjects ; the latter branch of his study culmi- nated in, and ceased with, a panoramic view of Edinburgh, which 244 ART IN SCOTLAND. was publicly exhibited. He went to London about 1805 or 1807, where, through the good offices of a literary gentleman, Mr Thomas Bryden, he was introduced to some of the Scottish nobility, and soon after assumed the position of the first miniature-painter in London. About 181 1 he was employed by some of the Royal family, from among whom with other sitters he had the Princess Charlotte, who subsequently took a great interest in the artist, more especially by the expression of her sympathy for him during his first severe attack of ophthalmia. His prices for miniatures ranged from 80 to 100 guineas. On account of the frequent recurrence of ophthalmia he began to limit his practice as a miniaturist, and took to painting life-sized portraits in oil, which soon became in such demand that he is said to have received 150 guineas for a head-size, 250 guineas for a half-length, and ;£^4oo for a whole- length : for the portrait of the Marquis of Londonderry beside his horse, he was paid ;£"8oo. Great as seems to have been his success, he failed at times to render himself popular on account of a rather proud and peculiar temper, which showed itself soon after his arrival in London by declining to associate with the Royal Academy, or allowing any of his works to appear in its exhibitions. This feeling of jealousy was of course reciprocated by the members, and it was only at the solicitude of the Duchess of Gordon that he consented to send the portrait of the Duke, and another of a lady, to one of the exhibi- tions. On attaining middle life he showed himself a man of much culture, and although self-taught, was a good linguist, besides being well read in the Greek and Roman classics. Among his intimate friends were the Dukes of Marlborough, Rutland, and Gordon, Lord Wemyss, Sir William Gumming, and Campbell of Islay. His miniature of Lord Byron, painted in 1807, is of the highest excellence, both as a work of art and as a likeness. During the last twenty years of his life he was incapable of doing any work for about six months in the year out of the twelve, on account of inflammation in the eyes. The result was a total loss of practice; and what may be termed a brilliant career was termi- W. DOUGLAS— W. J. THOMSON. 245 nated by his death in London in March 1846, his last years having been made as comfortable as possible by his friends, one of whom, Mr Menzies, a Leith shipbuilder, is especially mentioned. He had frequently visited Holland, Belgium, and France for the pur- pose of improving himself in his art. His works have a peculiar- ity of style approaching that of the French school of portraiture of that period, but generally superior in point of colour and effect. His miniatures are exquisitely finished, and rich and beautiful in colour, a specimen of which is preserved with some of his other works in the Scottish Portrait Gallery.^ William Douglas, who was contemporaneous with Sanders, a lineal descendant of the Glenbervie family, was born in Fifeshire in April 1780. His early taste for art rather inclined him to follow landscape-painting, which very often formed an attractive feature in his miniatures. He was a fellow-apprentice with John Burnet under Robert Scott the engraver, but early took to miniature- painting, in which he attained a good position and high connection in England as well as Scotland, and was much employed by the Buccleuch family. In 181 7 he was appointed miniature-painter for Scotland to the Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold, after- wards King of Belgium. He was particularly distinguished for his miniatures of animals, which are notable for their cleverness, neatness of execution, and fidelity to nature. His constant engage- ments prevented him from contributing to the exhibitions in Edinburgh, but his name frequently appears in the catalogue of the Royal Academy. Combe the phrenologist had a cast of Douglas's head, which he refers to as indicative of his profession ; and the poet Malloch attributes much of his love of nature to his conversations with the artist, who was brimming with enthusiasm for art. He died in Hart Street, Edinburgh, in 1832, leaving a widow, two sons, and a daughter. William J. Thomson, R.S.A. (17 71-1845), of about the same period, was a miniaturist of very great eminence, although he sometimes exercised his talents on large portraits and small fuU- ^ Scottish National Gallery Catalogue ; Scottish Nation; Patrick Gibson, &c. 246 ART IN SCOTLAND. lengths. To accuracy of execution he added great richness of effect, preciousness of finish, and depth of tone, which qualities still render his works of value. In this branch of art the venerable city of Aberdeen again puts in a claim, being represented by Alexander Robertson, the father of miniature-painting in this country, who was as eminent in his art as he was distinguished for his benevolence. To his father, who was a cabinetmaker, he was indebted for the encouragement of his taste for art, as well as for the sound religious principles by which he was actuated all throughout his life. In the year 1800 ^ he walked to London to seek his fortune, where he was lucky in attracting the notice of Sir Benjamin West, the president of the Royal Academy, who was so convinced of the talent of the young miniature-painter that he resolved to do all in his power to aid him. He accordingly engaged him to do the remarkable portrait of himself which is remembered as the foundation of the improved style of miniature-painting, in the execution of which both sitter and artist bestowed great patience. Fortune and fame flowed in upon the young painter ; his pencil was kept busily engaged on the miniatures of distinguished personages, chief among whom was H.R.H. the Duke of Sussex, one of his earliest and most constant patrons, and from the beginning of the century onwards his name frequently appears in the Royal Academy as miniature-painter to his Royal Highness. He did not, however, achieve that position in his art which he might have done. His works are carefully finished and drawn, but rather shortcoming in colour. This is usually attributed to the fact that he did not bestow his undivided attention on his art, but in a way in which the character of the man was ennobled at the expense of his position as an artist. Passionately fond of music, he practised so successfully as to be able to play second violin to the celebrated Salaman. When the country was threatened with the French invasion, he served with ^ Sometimes stated 1778 and 1810. The date given above is the most probable, as he exhibited at the Academy a year or two later. See early Royal Academy Catalogues. A. ROBERTSON — A. STEWART — MARGT. GILLIES. 247 enthusiasm in the volunteer corps of his district, in which he attained a high rank ; and, what was the greatest and also the most laudable cause of his abstraction from his art, he took an active interest in the creation and support of various charities. He is credited with a large share of the merit of establishing the Scottish Asylum; in the interests of the Scottish Church he was active among others in inviting the Rev. Edward Irving to form a con- gregation in London ; it was Robertson who drew the attention of his patron, the Duke of Sussex, to the Artists' General Benevo- lent Institution — which had been already established by him and some of the members of the Royal Academy, and in the welfare of which he took an active interest during thirty years of his life. He died at Hampstead on the 15th December 1845, when his many virtues were chronicled in the obituary notices of that time. During his career he contributed articles on art to the * Literary Gazette,' and retired from the profession in 1844, when the most distinguished miniature-painters in London presented him with a piece of plate. It may further be mentioned that he was secretary to the Associated Artists in Water-colours when that body was first formed in 1808, and employed as an assistant the late Sir William Charles Ross when a lad at the age of twenty. The latter has left a chalk head of his master, and another, spoken of as a good likeness, was executed by Illidge. He is as yet unrepresented in the Scottish National Galleries.^ There is obscure notice of him having a brother less eminent in the same art named Alexander; if so, he is almost unknown. Antony Stewart, who practised landscape and portrait painting in oil with some success at the close of last century, is said to have been a pupil of Nasmyth. He went to London, probably about 1805, where he chiefly devoted himself to miniatures, which he executed in a delicate and refined manner, with good colour. There may be here added to the list of miniaturists the name of Margaret Gillies, who died so recently as the month of July ^ Art Journal obituary notice, 1846 ; Redgraves' Century of Painters, &c. 248 ART IN SCOTLAND. 1887, at Crockham Hill in Kent, one of the few links between this generation and that which preceded it. Her mother died while she and her sister were children, when they were intrusted to the care of Lord Gillies, Judge of the Court of Session, whose house in Edinburgh was one of the resorts of many of the nota- bilities of that city, including Sir Walter Scott, Lord Jeffrey, and Lord Erskine. At the age of twenty she chose art as a profession, soon after which she removed to London, where she was long a popular miniature-painter, exhibiting her productions at the Royal Academy, and latterly at the Society of Painters in Water-colours. She enjoyed in middle life the friendship of Wordsworth and Dickens, who, with Mrs Marsh and many others, sat to her for portraits.^ Several foreign artists also practised portrait and miniature painting in Scotland early in the century, such as the American Chester Harding, and Peter Paillou from London, to whom it is unnecessary to refer here. When the population of the principal cities in Scotland, especially Edinburgh, at the close of the last and the beginning of the present century, is considered, as well as the almost total absence of the aristocracy from the capital, it must be admitted that art was not only fairly represented, but also appreciated by the educated and upper classes ; and it is not to be wondered that the immensely greater importance of London as the capital of the United Kingdom should have tempted so many Scottish artists to a more remunerative and more widely appreciative sphere of labour. 1 Obituary notice, 1887. 249 CHAPTER XIII. Painters of history and genre of the early nineteenth century — yohn Graham — Sir David Wilkie — Alexander Fraser — Alexander Carse — y antes Burnet — William Kidd — Sir Williajn Allan — Alexander Chisholm — John Steven. The Scottish painters of history so frequently practised the domestic branch of their art that it is impossible to dissociate them, and perhaps it is unnecessary. If it be true that the ballads of a people confer more certain immortality and popularity on their authors than a nation does on its historians, the painters of the lives and homes of a people may claim at least equal rank with those who have put on canvas the great events connected with history, — probably even a higher, — as the historical painter almost invariably has dealt with subjects belonging to the far past, wherein his pencil has been guided by the pen of the historian and the knowledge of the archaeologist, while the painter of domestic life has put into permanent form that which he has actually seen. It is true that the function of the artist is not merely to give information, but chiefly to stir the feelings by portraying the emotions called into action and expression, by some phase of human life or incident of touching or momen- tous importance, whether national or individual; and it will hardly be denied that the artist will more vividly express that which he has seen or experienced, than that in which he has been inspired by perhaps equal enthusiasm, but only emanating from written or verbal description — even when surrounded by 250 ART IN SCOTLAND. the halo of romance, patriotism, or tradition. It is a low estimate of a picture, and a poor compliment to an artist, speaking artisti- cally, to say that he has selected a fine subject; but if in the interpretation of this he has touched the sympathies of the spectator, whether he has raised a feeling of national or spiritual independence, expressed a protest on the part of undeserved poverty or want against the misapplied use of wealth or power, or even given birth to some merely pleasing emotion, his work as a piece of art will rank accordingly. Fashion, so called, only prevails temporarily, but human nature is enduring; and it matters little whether the subject illustrated has for its scene the castle or the cottage, the cathedral or the country church, the field of war or the peaceful pursuit of the agriculturist, the picture will retain its position only so far as it has some human sympathies. In early Italian life, religion, and latterly ecclesiastic influence, con- stituted this; in Germany, the birthplace of the Reformation, rationalism prevailed; in Spain, Murillo in his Flower-girl and some other works, and Velasquez in his Water-carrier, appealed to the people in such popular subjects, almost despite of Italian and Church influence; old French art is as much distinguish- able by the works of Chardin and Fragonard as by the heroics of David and the monasticisms of Philip de Champagne ; apart from its portraiture and a few municipal paintings, Dutch art retains its position by its pictures of everyday life ; and old Flemish art, which only preserved its national purity for about a hundred years, or even less, before the advent of Rubens, represents the men and women of the period as the actors in its sacred subjects. Few circumstances can be more injurious or even fatal to the endurance of the native art of a country than the cultivation or imitation of a foreign style of work : the sympathies, ideas, and feelings of nations, as to a lesser ex- tent in individuals, notwithstanding their now freer intercourse, are as different from each other in art as they are in literature. The great artists and authors of the different countries are great and appreciated in proportion as their works are inspired by their HISTORICAL AND GENRE PAINTING. 25 1 national feelings, reflecting the national character, and imbued with the universal human sympathy. Had these been imitators of others in point of style, they would never have retained their positions in after-times. Apart from portraits, figure-painting in Scotland as a native art was much later in its development than in England. Hogarth was filling the place in English art which Fielding and Smollett did in its literature, and was painting his powerful sermons on behalf of truth and morality, and in condemnation of folly and vice, about the middle of the eighteenth century, at the time in which David Allan was a mere boy. The latter was contem- poraneous with the French domestic and conversation painters, Huet and Lancret — the Dutch having much earlier distinguished themselves in these branches. Of the comparative merits of these schools in their early period, the palm must be given to the Dutch for technique^ to Hogarth for earnestness and originality, the French school being too much imbued with the traditions of Italian art and the academic affectation which it is only now throwing off. As already hinted, there is hardly a Scottish painter of history who did not also at some time or other practise the domestic style of art, and the same might be said of our poets, who exercised such an influence on painting. At first the Scottish artist, feeling his way, sought inspiration in the classic subjects which he had seen painted abroad or had been imported into his country, the traditional following and imitation of which had given them a certain prestige; very much as Burns found his enthusiasm awakened by early reading the life of Hannibal, but his heart stirred afterwards by the history of Wallace, which he said poured such a Scottish prejudice into his veins that it would boil along there till shut in by eternal rest. The same mind which gave birth to the stirring " Address of Bruce at Bannockburn " evolved the " Cottar's Saturday Night"; the exquisite " Kilmeny " of the Ettrick Shepherd is a domestic jewel in a historic setting ; and the grand old Scottish ballads blend the homestead and the battle-field together in their picturesque incidents. 252 ART IN SCOTLAND. David Allan was the first who attempted to do for his native art what Ramsay did for its literature, and Alexander Runciman was probably the first to paint Scottish history in Scotland with any degree of success ; but it was not till after their deaths that these branches of art assumed a high position in the works of Wilkie, the elder Fraser, John Graham, Lizars, and others. The works of Ramsay and Burns (not to speak of such minor poets as M'Neil), and more lately those of Sir Walter Scott, influenced or led the art; and the previous Jacobite risings and Covenanting troubles, which may have retarded its earlier development, yielded some compensation in affording subjects for the pictures of future artists, such as Duncan, Harvey, William Allan, and some of our still living painters. Of those who immediately preceded the institution of the early Society of Artists in Edinburgh, it may safely be assumed that no other did so much for art in Scotland with as little recognition on the part of the public as John Graham, whose name is closely associated with the early art education of many of the most eminent Scottish artists, during his connection as a teacher with the Trustees' Academy. An artist possessed with the power of communicating his knowledge and enthusiasm is more rare than is usually supposed, and such a teacher it is impossible to train or develop by any known method. In this respect Alexander Na- smyth and John Graham may be said to stand almost alone in the annals of Scottish art. Nasmyth subordinated his teaching to his art practice, and his practice in consequence deteriorated. Graham, on the contrary, subordinated his practice to his teaching, and his practice became extinguished. The artist who is very much employed in communicating a knowledge of the principles, and more especially the practice of his art, will always paint below his possible best : not only is his attention distracted and his time for practice limited, but his manner of work becomes affected by his efforts to instruct his pupils, while the daily contemplation of inferior work to a great extent obliterates his higher ideal of art. Thus, such a man as John Graham deserves not only the respect JOHN GRAHAM. 253 of his pupils and successors, but still more so the gratitude of his country. There can be no doubt that if his talents as an artist had received the recognition which they merited, or been directed towards the cultivation of art as a profession, he would have taken a high position. As it is, he has certainly advanced the art of his country in a more humble and less thankfully recognised manner ; statues have been erected to the memory of men less de- serving of them ; while all that is known of Graham may be con- densed into a few brief sentences. He was born in the north of Scotland in 1754, and apprenticed to a coach-painter in Edinburgh, which trade he followed for some time in London prior to his admission as a student in the Royal Academy. He resolved to follow the historical branch of art, and on his return to Edinburgh painted the funeral of General Eraser at Saratoga, a work of considerable power, which was engraved by Nutter ; the death of David Rizzio ; David instructing Solomon (at Gosford House) ; and the large picture of the Dis- obedient Prophet now in the Scottish National Gallery, which is said to have been painted in competition with Opie. He was appointed master of the Trustees' Academy in 1798, in succession to Wood, who held the position for a short time previously, on the faith of specimen works submitted to the managers which were discovered to be not of his own doing. John Graham was the first to introduce oil-painting into the Academy, and otherwise widened its sphere of usefulness, by causing premiums to be offered for that branch of art, forming a proper collection of casts, and infusing a new vigour into its operations. Among his many pupils were Wilkie, William Allan, John Burnet, and Watson Gor- don, who all have borne testimony to his great merit and abilities. In his own words he wrote, "I look upon it not as altogether sufficient barely to instruct youth in the actual mode or practice of the profession, but also to inform their minds with a correct sense of what is proper, in order that they may act for themselves and towards others as good men, without which they can never be great artists." This honourable position he held for nineteen 254 ART IN SCOTLAND. years, till his death in November 1817. He regularly attended his duties, which engaged him in the forenoons and also in the evenings, and before the class broke up, invariably went his round marking with his thumb-nail the corrections on the works of his pupils. Among his smaller works were designs for Campbell's " Pleasures of Hope," the first edition of which, it was thought, would be unsaleable without illustrations, and published by Mundell & Doig, who paid the poet ^^15 for the copyrights. Contemporaneous with John Graham was Isaac Cruikshank (1756 or 57-181 1), whose works, of little merit, only deserve notice as marking an era in the progress of water-colour painting in Britain. Bom in Scotland, he went early in his youth to London, where he practised with some success as a water-colour painter of figure subjects, and also as an etcher of caricatures. Being entirely self-taught, his works are not very high-class. Two small examples are in the South Kensington Museum, executed in Indian ink, washed with colour. His two sons George and Robert learnt drawing from their father, the former of whom is so widely known by his humorous etchings and book illustrations. The life of the distinguished Sir David Wilkie has been so often repeated, and the full biography by Allan Cunningham leaves so little to be added, that any other is unnecessary. He was the third son of the Rev. David Wilkie, the parish minister of Cults, on the banks of Eden Water in Fifeshire, who was the author of a 'Theory of Interest' — dedicated to Lord Napier, and said to have been highly thought of by Pitt — and also of some tables of mortality. He was born on the 18th November 1785, and in the necessarily frugal home of his parents received the usual elements of a child's education at the knee of his mother, concerning which time he used to say that he drew before he could read, and painted before he was able to spell. At Pitlessie School, to which he was sent at the age of seven, he made little progress, and his slate oftener showed drawings of heads than arithmetical sums. His simple education was further carried on at a school at Kettle, some three miles from Cults, at which period his attention was SIR DAVID WILKIE. 255 much distracted by such mechanical pursuits as making models of mills and pumps, weaving, trying his hand at shoemaking and the village forge, besides making droll drawings on the walls of the manse. Scottish history and literature possessed great attrac- tions for him, and the late Allan Cunningham preserved a book of his childish drawings from these sources done in 1797-98, at a time when he had no picture of any merit near him. Seeing the strong predilection David had for art, his father sent him in 1799, when at the age of fourteen, to Edinburgh, with specimens of his drawing and an introductory letter from the Earl of Leven to the Trustees' Academy. The secretary at first refused to admit him, the drawings of houses and trees not being considered satisfactory evidences of talent, and the objection was only overcome by the personal interference of Lord Leven. On being admitted to the class, he was at first very despondent on seeing the dexterity of the other pupils, and from the specimens sent home of his draw- ings his friends seriously thought of making a lawyer of him.^ He soon, however, made rapid progress under John Graham, William Allan being then also a student, and in 1803 gained the ten-guinea prize for Calisto in the Bath of Diana. He now began to paint small portraits, and first attempted a subject in the style in which he afterwards made himself so famous, from Hector M'Neil's ballad of "Scotland's Skaith ; or. Will and Jean," which had then newly appeared. In his seventeenth year he painted a subject from the 'Gentle Shepherd,' and another from Home's 'Tragedy of the Douglas.' For these works he seems to have been his own model, and his library consisted of two books, the Bible and the ' Gentle Shepherd,' which divided his leisure with his favourite fiddle. He ceased his attendance at the Trustees' Academy in 1804, and at his father's manse began his Pitlessie Fair on a 44 by 25 inch canvas, utilising a chest of drawers as an easel. The picture contained one hundred and forty figures, full of humour and drollery. Two old lay figures given him by Dr Martin, the painter's brother, enabled him to work out sketches 1 Life of Collins. ART IN ^t of characteristic figures which he made slyly at church. The picture was painted originally for Kinnear of Kinloch, and at the same time he did a few portraits and his other early picture of the Village Recruit, which has been engraved. After unsuccessfully trying Aberdeen, he tied up his pictures, and with ;^25 which he had received for his unfinished Pitlessie Fair, in addition to other ;^45, he set off for London in the year 1805, taking lodgings with a coal merchant at 1 1 Norton Street, Portland Road, when he had to wait a month or two till the Academy classes opened. His Village Recruit was in the meantime sold for ;£6 through the agency of a shopkeeper. At the Academy he made the acquaintance of Haydon, who had a great admiration for Wilkie's work, notwithstanding some unkind personalities which he ex- pressed of him when lecturing on his genius in a future year in Edinburgh ; and it is often related of this artist, how, on having been invited by Wilkie to breakfast with him, he found the Scotchman partly clothed, drawing from himself before a looking- glass, all oblivious of everything except the grand practice he was having. He was some little time in London before he met with much encouragement, and his introductions to Flaxman and other lead- ing artists proved of little value, further than as a suggestion for the picture which he afterwards painted of the Letter of Intro- duction. When his stock of money was reduced to j£S and things began to look serious, the chance acquaintance with a piano-dealer named Stodart was the means of securing a few portraits, and he sent to Fife for his unfinished Pitlessie Fair. He had commenced the Village Politicians, his first picture ex- hibited at the Royal Academy in 1806, which at once established his reputation. This picture was commissioned by Lord Mans- field, who had seen his Pitlessie Fair through the good offices of the piano-dealer, and the price of fifteen guineas was spoken of, without a clear understanding it seemed, at least on Wilkie's part. When placed on the Academy wall, inquiries were made in regard to the price, which induced Wilkie to write to Lord Mansfield to SIR DAVID WILKIE. 2$/ the effect that he had been offered thirty guineas for the picture. The result was a curt answer reminding Wilkie that it was painted expressly for him, at his desire, at the price of fifteen guineas including the frame, and expressing a hope that the artist would see the subject from a proper point of view. Although Wilkie declined to admit that he understood the arrangement as thus stated, he agreed to close the affair on Lord Mansfield's under- standing, whereupon his lordship paid Wilkie thirty guineas, who had in the meantime twice been offered ;£'ioo for the picture. Previous to the exhibition of this picture, Jackson the artist brought Sir George Beaumont and Lord Mulgrave to see it, each of whom commissioned a picture at fifty guineas. While affairs thus seemed to prosper with the artist, his health began to suffer. A debt of JQ20 due to his father at Cults, which was probably needed at home, weighed on his mind, and he had the difficult problem to solve of paying his living, &c., which amounted to nearly ;£"ioo per annum, when in the same time he could only manage to paint one picture bringing half that sum. He at once, however, commenced his Blind Fiddler for Sir George Beaumont, and exhibited it at the Academy in 1807, when he had removed to No. 10 Sols Row, Hampstead. In the following year he exhibited his Card Players, painted for the Duke of Gloucester, besides finishing Lord Mulgrave's picture of the Rent Day, which, with the Cut Finger, he exhibited in 1809. During much of this time he continued his studies at the Academy, and again removed to 84 Great Portland Street. His Alfred was painted the previous year, and commissions now began to flow in upon him. Besides some of the principal artists, he associated with such leading men as Coleridge, Leigh Hunt, Rogers, Sir F. Bourgeois, and Anger- stein, and in 1809 was elected an Associate of the Academy, two years after which he was made full Academician. He was now living at Chelsea, and a holiday becoming necessary as a rehef to his hard work, he spent two months at Cults with his father, whose health began to decline. On his return to London he engaged two rooms at 87 Pall Mall for the purpose of having an R 258 ART IN SCOTLAND. exhibition of his pictures. This was opened on the istofMay 1812 : one shilling was charged for admission including a cata- logue, and he showed twenty-nine pictures and sketches, including the Village Holiday (or Festival as it is sometimes called), in addi- tion to some of those already mentioned. The expenses, how- ever, absorbed all the profits, and he had further to pay ;^32 for a debt which he never incurred, to relieve his Village Holiday retained by his landlord. It is understood that he recovered this money, and the incident suggested his Distraining for Rent, ex- hibited in 1815. On his father's death in 181 2, he took a house often rooms at £l^ or £^^ rent at Phillimore Place, and in the following year brought his mother and sister to stay with him. At that time he exhibited Blind Man's Buff, and a young lady's portrait. A year or two previous to this, he had begun to change his style and mature his art, aiming successfully at greater richness of colour ; and now made a short visit to Paris in company with Haydon, in which he seems to have been more astonished than instructed by the treasures of the Louvre, finding Paul Veronese's Marriage at Cana more commonplace than he had anticipated. Two years later, in 18 16, he visited the Dutch galleries, which he would probably find more congenial to his taste, but has left no record of his impressions. 1 His name is absent from the Academy catalogues from 1815 till 182 1, when he exhibited Guess my Name, and Newsmongers, having in this interval revisited Scot- land, chiefly the old historic castles and similar localities, includ- ing a tour in the Highlands. It was during this visit, in the autumn of 181 7, that he was the guest of Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford, where he painted the pleasing Httle picture in which the famous author and his family are represented as a group of peasants, for Captain Ferguson, who appears in the character of a gamekeeper. 2 In the same year he met with Hogg on the 1 When in the Holy Land, Wilkie wrote of Rembrandt as " the painter who has most truly given us an Eastern people. " ^ ** We are well acquainted with all the persons composing this interesting L SIR DAVID WILKIE. 259 Braes of Yarrow, who, on being introduced to the painter, eyed him for a moment in silence, and then thrust out his hand, exclaiming, " Thank God for it ! — I did not know you were so young a man." ^ After another visit to the Louvre, where he made some sketches, he was at Edinburgh in 1822 on the occasion of the royal visit to Holyrood, where he painted the picture commis- sioned by the king, but not completed till eight years later, when it was exhibited. During the progress of this work he spent three years on the Continent, visiting France, Italy, Germany, and Spain, from which he returned imbued with a preference for a brown tone of colour which found its way into this picture. This produced a degree of heaviness in the colour ; besides which, he was not permitted to have his own choice of the treatment, it being executed almost under the direction of the king. The visit to the Continent, which was preceded by the death of his mother, was partly induced by the state of his health. At Rome he was accorded a public dinner by the Scottish artists, presided over by the Duke of Hamilton — Thorwaldsen, Guerin, Gibson, and Eastlake being among the guests. There he was much impressed by the great works of Raphael, Michael Angelo, and their predecessors, and felt the decHne of art when the successors of these masters sacrificed sentiment and expression for mere technicality. During these three years he was not idle : besides looking up old masters for the collection of Sir Robert Peel, he painted a number of pictures and sketches, and in 1829 exhibited four Italian and three Spanish subjects, including the Maid of Saragossa, a Spanish Posada, the Guerilla's Departure, and Wash- ing Pilgrims' Feet. He subsequently visited Edinburgh and Ireland, after which he devoted himself almost exclusively to group, and can testify to the extraordinary truth of the likenesses, more particularly of that of the principal figure. It has nothing of the fine poetical tone which Mr Raeburn has given so admirably ; but we have seen no paint- ing which places the individual, in his everyday feelings, so completely before the spectator." — Edinburgh Weekly Journal, 181 7. 1 Lockhart's Life of Scott. 260 ART IN SCOTLAND. portrait and historical painting. On Lawrence's death in 1830, he was appointed Painter in Ordinary to George IV. ; King's Limner for Scotland, in succession to Raeburn, in 1823; and received the honour of knighthood in 1836. In the year 1840 he set out on his visit to the East, arriving at Constantinople in the autumn, when he painted his portrait of the Sultan. After visiting Egypt, Smyrna, and the Holy Land, he embarked in the Oriental at Alexandria, the log-book of which contains, " 1st June 1841, 8 a.m. — Sir David Wilkie sud- denly worse. 8.30 P.M. — Stopped engine and committed to the deep the body of Sir D. Wilkie," the authorities at Gibraltar not permitting the body to be put ashore. Long suffering from an affection of the stomach, he had drunk too freely of iced water, besides indulging in fruit, which is supposed to have hastened his death.^ Wilkie repeatedly changed his style during his career, without imitating any one. He experimented on his own powers with the intention of developing new methods, and was cautious in allow- ing himself to believe that he had at any time attained the greatest excellence of which he was capable. The period embrac- ing his best works is generally admitted as being from 18 10 till 1825. This includes the dates of his Village Festival, Chelsea Pensioners, Distraining for Rent, the Parish Beadle, &c., after which his work sometimes became rather heavy in colour from the cause already mentioned. Whether it is to be considered a matter of regret that he ventured into the historic walk is dis- puted, but there can be no questioning the fact that he never afterwards showed the same qualities of art which are seen in the central group in his Village Festival. During his sojourn in the East, symptoms of new schemes of colour began to reveal them- selves in the brilliantly coloured costumes which he saw and studied there ; and had his life been longer spared, no doubt a return to a better style would have resulted from the indications of this change, as seen in his sketches. Among his later works 1 Allan Cunningham, &c., «&c. SIR DAVID WILKIE. 261 before leaving England, many, however, are distinguished by the very highest qualities of art : his Cottar's Saturday Night and the only commenced picture of John Knox administering the Sacra- ment are deserving of the very highest praise, but it must be admitted that, as a portrait-painter, he was by no means so successful. Among his numerous engraved works may be men- tioned John Knox preaching before the Lords of the Congre- gation in the Church of St Andrews, by Doo, published in 1838, which Wilkie spoke of as " superb," and which occupied the engraver three years and six months. His reproductions by John Burnet more properly appear in connection with that artist's labours. During his career he painted about a hundred and fifty-three pictures and portraits. His highest-priced pictures were George IV. at Holyrood, 1600 guineas; Sir David Baird discovering the Body of Tippoo Saib, 1500 guineas; Chelsea Pensioners, and John Knox preaching, each 1200 guineas; the Village Festival, Spanish Posada, and the Maid of Saragossa, 800 guineas each. His twenty-six sketches in Turkey, Syria, and Egypt, lithographed by Nash, were published in 1843. No. 7 of that series, the por- trait of a Persian prince, Halakoo Mirza, it is said was studied by Wilkie, with the intention of reproducing it as a head of the Saviour. His statue by Josephs, with his palette let into the side of the pedestal, in the London National Gallery, resembles him more at the age of thirty than that at which he died, and is said to convey a tolerably correct impression of his personal appearance. In recent years the revival of the taste for etching has led to a recognition of Wilkie's great abilities in that branch of art. Mr Walter Armstrong writes of the etchings of Wilkie and Geddes as being a phenomenon in art-history. To throw Wilkie's Pope, or his Lost Receipt, into the shade, he adds, we must turn to Rembrandt.^ The first of these represents a Cellini-looking figure holding a censer for the inspection of the holy father, with a third figure in the background — the whole being eminently 1 Forgotten Etchers, in English Illustrated Magazine. 262 suggestive of the work of Rembrandt. The Lost Receipt represents a miserly-looking merchant and his wife or housekeeper rum- maging in a desk for the missing document, while a tradesman, with his bill in one hand and hat in the other, leans on the back of a chair with a look of supreme indifference, resulting from the certainty that there is no lost receipt to be discovered ; a half- starved-looking dog appears in the foreground scratching its ear, almost Dureresque in texture ; and the entire plate shows more of the genuine etcher than any other which preceded it in Britain. Among the few other etchings which Wilkie executed, are an inferior one of Reading the Will, and Boys and Dogs : the latter Mr Hamerton refers to as a good composition with a happy selection of lines.^ The late Mr Rippingille the artist relates of Wilkie, that when he was a young man, on asking him for some advice relating to the practice of his art, Wilkie replied, " Ye needna fear to ask me ony questions ye please. I am very pleased to tell you onything I know; there are nae secrets; the art of a painter does not depend, like that of a juggler, upon a trick." As already said, he often drew from himself in his younger days, when hired models were considered a luxury ; and Burnet men- tions that the strongest likeness of the artist when young is the head of the boy who is represented playing on the bellows in the picture of the Blind Fiddler. Burnet also, among other anecdotes, relates that he only once saw him at work on a Sunday, on which occasion he was in a manner compelled to do so, as the professional character who was sitting as his model could only be spared on that day from the public service : this was the monkey, borrowed from the menagerie, which he was putting on the boy's shoulder in his picture of the Parish Beadle. The story of Turner on varnishing day at the Royal Academy Exhibition in 1807 having reddened the sun in his picture of the Sun rising through Mists, and blown the bellows of his art on his Black- smith's Forge, "to put the Scotchman's nose out of joint," ^ Etchings by Wilkie and Geddes. SIR DAVID WILKIE, 263 although contradicted by Mr Redgrave, and condemned as an untruth in the ' Quarterly Review/ has since been often repeated. The facts are, that the Sun rising through Mists was too far away on the wall to hurt Wilkie's Blind Fiddler, and the Forge is a grey picture containing as its strongest colour a pale-yellow flame, and a small quantity of red on the butcher's cap. It is pleasant to find the great English artist freed from the imputation so ungenerously put upon him, of jealousy of the young Scotch- man.^ Anecdotes innumerable have been often told of Wilkie, some of which refer to his partiality to the works of his fellow-country- men at the Academy exhibitions, when he had the power to help them, at the sacrifice of the interests of other artists. The fol- lowing extract from Wilkie Collins's collection of notes by his father, the English Academician, is interesting as being illustrative of the character of the man : *' The theme on which he most delighted to talk with his friends was painting. One day at his house we had been some time conversing on this fruitful subject — the mysteries of the art — before the uninitiated, when his excellent mother thought she ought to apologise to a certain captain present, which she did in these terms : * You must e'en excuse them, puir bodies ; they canna help it ! ' The delicacy with which he always abstained from boasting of the notice shown him by the nobility was very remarkable. He was especially careful never to mention any engagement he might have to dine with great people; but if his engagement was with a humble friend, the name was always ready, unless, indeed, he had reason to think you were not of the party. The way in which he spoke of the works of contemporaries, without compromising that sin- cerity which was part and parcel of the man, was truly Christian ; and the extreme pains he took in giving his most invaluable advice, showed an entire absence of rivalry. He never had any secrets ; his own practice was told at once. His fears when his pictures were well placed at the exhibition, that others not so well ^ Redgraves' Century of Painters. 264 ART IN SCOTLAND. off might feel uncomfortable, gave him real and unaffected painT His own low estimate of his works was, to a student in human nature, marvellous. The very small sums he required for his pictures are an evidence of his innate modesty : 400 guineas for Reading the Will, which occupied seven months of the year in which it was produced, and was afterwards sold for 1200 in a country where that sum will go as far as double that amount in England, is a proof. Many others might be men- tioned : as the Rent Day, painted for 200 guineas, sold for 750 ; Card Players, 100 guineas, sold for 600. It must be recollected that these sales took place during the lifetime of the painter — a most unusual circumstance. When Lord Mulgrave's pictures were sold at Christie's, Wilkie waited in the neighbourhood while I attended the sale. It was quite refreshing to see his joy when I returned with the list of the prices. The sketches produced more than 500 per cent; the pictures 300. I recollect one — a small early picture called Sunday Morning. I asked Wilkie what he thought of its fetching, as it did, ;£iio, and whether Lord Mulgrave had not got it cheap enough? 'Why, he gave me ;^i5 for it!' When I expressed my surprise that he should have given so small a sum for so clever a work, Wilkie, defending him, said, * Ah, but consider, — as I was not known at that time, it was a great risk ' ! " The following extract from Dr Waagen's 'Art Treasures in Great Britain ' describes the character of Wilkie's work so well, that it is hoped no apology will be necessary for its insertion here. Regarding the Vernon Gallery the Doctor writes : " Sir David Wilkie, as the greatest subject-painter, not only in England but of our time, stands first on the list here — taking a similar place in the English school to that occupied by Hogarth in his time. In the most essential particulars Wilkie has the same style of art as Hogarth. With him, he has great variety, refinement, and acuteness in the observation of what is characteristic in nature ; while in many of his pictures the subject is strikingly dramatic. SIR DAVID WILKIE. 265 Nevertheless, in many respects he differs from him. He does not, like Hogarth, exhibit to us moral dramas in whole series of pictures, but contents himself with representing, more in the manner of a novel, one striking scene. His turn of mind is also very different. If I might compare Hogarth with Swift, in the biting satire with which he contemplates mankind only on the dark side, and takes delight in representing them in a state of the most profound cor- ruption and of the most frightful misery, I find in Wilkie a close affinity with his celebrated countryman Sir Walter Scott. Both have in common that genuine, refined delineation of character which extends to the minutest particulars. In the soul of both there is more love than contempt for man; both afford us the most soothing views of the quiet, genial happiness which is sometimes found in the narrow circle of domestic life, understanding with masterly skill, by delicate traits of good-natured humour, to heighten the charms of such scenes. Also, as true poets, whether in language or colour, must do, they show us man in his manifold weaknesses, errors, afflictions, and distresses ; yet their humour is of a kind that never shocks our feelings. What is especially commendable in Wilkie is, that in such scenes as the Distress for Rent, he never falls into caricature, which often happened to Hogarth, but, with all the energy of expression, remains within the bounds of truth. It is affirmed that the deeply impressive and touching character of this picture caused an extraordinary sensation in England when it first appeared. Here we first learn duly to prize another feature of his pictures — namely, their genuine national character. They are in all their parts the most spirited, animated, and faithful representa- tions of the peculiarities and modes of life of the EngUsh. In many other respects Wilkie reminds me of the great Dutch painters of common life of the seventeenth century : for instance, in the choice of many of his subjects, and particularly by the careful and complete carrying out of the details in his earlier pictures, in which he is one of the rare exceptions among his countrymen. If he does not go so far in this respect as Gerard Dow and Mieris, he is 266 ART IN SCOTLAND. nearly on an equality with the more carefully executed paintings of Teniers and Jan Steen. His touch, too, often approaches the former in spirit and freedom." ^ Contemporaneous with Wilkie was Alexander Fraser, a native of the north of Scotland, born in 1786, and known as the elder Fraser, to distinguish him from the still living able landscape- painter of the same name. His pictures, with regard to style as well as subject, bear sometimes a very close resemblance to those of Wilkie, by whom he was often employed in forwarding his work. In his more elaborate compositions he was apt to be unequal in different parts, but he always drew with great freedom, coloured well, and often produced very brilliant effects in light and shade. His subjects are usually domestic, sometimes very humor- ous, and the still life introduced is generally extremely well painted. So similar at times is his execution to that of Wilkie, that his works have sometimes been sold as such, and at least one instance has occurred where Fraser's name was erased from the canvas and that of Wilkie substituted. While in attendance at the Trustees' Academy under John Graham, he is said to have ranked as third in point of merit among his fellow-students; was an ex- hibitor at the early exhibitions in Edinburgh, and elected into the Academy there in 1830. He exhibited in the London Academy, in 18 10, a Green Stall, at which date he was Hving in the Lawn- market; in 18 1 2, at the same exhibition he showed the New Coat, and Preparing for the Fish Market; in 1813, a Poultry Stall; in 1 The following are the prices realised by some of his pictures (excluding those under £4^ after his death. In 1843, at the Wilkie sale, the Village School, ;^756 ; it was resold to Mr Moon for ;^iooo, brought at the sale of the latter in 1872 only 300 guineas, and at the sale of Mr J. Graham's collection in 1887 ran up to 1650 guineas. In 1843, Sheep Washing, 669 guineas; Alfred in the Neat-herd's Cottage, 410 guineas (an early one with the same title at the sale of Mr Allnutt's collection in 1863 sold for 120 guineas). In 1853 the Highland Toilette, 540 guineas. In 1863, Queen Mary leaving Lochleven, 760 guineas ; resold in the Gillott collection in 1872 for 600 guineas. In 1872, the Cottar's Saturday Night, 590 guineas. The finished sketch for the Penny Wedding, 700 guineas, from the Gillott collection, brought at Baron Grant's sale in 1877 less than half that sum; while from the same Baron's collection Napoleon and the Pope brought 1800 guineas. A. FRASER — A. CARSE. 267 1814, when he was living in London, Snipe Shooting; in 1825, a Scene on the Sea-beach; in 1827, a Girl mending a Net, and Dead Game. Among the subjects which he contributed to the same exhibition in later years, an Illicit Whisky-still near TuUa, in Ireland, was spoken of in terms of high praise by the critics of the time, as was also his picture in 1 846, three years later, illustrating the lines from " Tam o' Shanter "— " That every naig was ca'd a shoe on, The smith and thee gat roarin' fou on." Several of Fraser's works have been engraved, including some small illustrations to the Waverley Novels : the Highland Cottage, a work of much force, was engraved for the * Art Journal.' He is also the probable painter of one of the many Penny Weddings, which formed a favourite subject for many painters of the time. A penny wedding, as it was called, was one in which the peasant guests contributed towards the entertainment, which sometimes took a curious form, by the lads and lasses of a village, as an excuse for a merry-making, getting up a subscription for the wedding of a pair of old or useless paupers. Fraser died in 1865.^ Alexander Carse was another of the many domestic painters of the same period, but much inferior to Fraser. He had consider- able talent, although deficient in many respects on account of want of early training in art ; but his pictures possess much char- acter and humour. A good example of his style is the Village Tailor (the New Web), recently added to the Scottish National Gallery, well grouped and coloured, and effective in light and shade. It wants the subtlety and richness of Fraser, and the clear incisiveness of W. H. Lizars' Wedding, but is superior to similar works by his contemporary Geikie, and his predecessor David Allan. The old tailor, standing'behind a table, has just cut a piece of cloth off the new web, which he is handing to an 1 Get up and bar the Door was bought at the R.A. Exhibition for ;^84 by the London Art Union. In 1859 his Village Sign-Painter, at the sale of Lord North wick's collection, brought 190 guineas ; and at the Hotel Drouot the Fisherman's Repose sold for ;^i7o. 268 ART IN SCOTLAND. assistant fully gifted with the upturned nose and weak jaw usually attributed to the junior snip; while a peasant, who has evidently come to be measured, is utilising the interval by attempting to kiss the tailor's daughter. Near the fire is a crying child, who seems to have been burned by the boiling over of a pot, about to be comforted by an old woman ; while the housewife is entering by a door with some vegetables in her hand. He was an exhibitor in the first Edinburgh exhibition in 1808; and in 181 7, at the British Institution in Pall Mall, his Field Preacher in a Scottish Village was noticed by the press of the time for its merits in design and execution. He was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy in London, where he first appeared in 18 12 with the Itinerant Preacher; in 1813, the Reproof; in 1815, a portrait and Tam o' Shanter; in 181 7, Andro wi' his Cutty Gun, — continuing thus to contribute for some years. The last picture which he exhibited in Edinburgh was in 1836, two years after which he is supposed to have died, having passed the latter twenty-five years of his life in London. Among Carse's other works may be mentioned the engraved portrait of Allan Ramsay the poet, the original of which, on the death of the poet's last surviving daughter Janet, passed into the possession of the proprietor of Newhall House, near Edinburgh. The collection at the same house also contained a picture of a sloop wrecked on a rocky coast, with some figures in the foreground ; and the ceiling of the room there called Pennecuik's parlour, contained an oval decoration representing the troops of Tweeddale and the Forest of Selkirkshire convened by royal authority in May 1685, as described in Pennecuik's Poems, painted by Carse.^ The long lives enjoyed by artists have often been commented upon ; but, like Hterature, art has also had its early victims. One of the most noted of these is James Burnet, whose simple biography by Allan Cunningham renders a very brief account of him neces- sary here. He was born at Musselburgh in 1788, a younger brother of John, the celebrated engraver, and first became imbued "^ This ceiling painting is not now at Newhall. JAMES BURNET. 269 with a love for art by visiting the workshop of Scott the engraver. He was put to learn the art of wood-carving, which was then a lucrative calling, such work being in demand not only for fur- niture, but largely for other internal decorations. At the same time he attended the Trustees' Academy, where Graham early discovered his talents, and he soon resolved on becoming a painter. With this object in view, he sent some of his productions to his brother in London ; but, too impatient to wait for an answer, he followed his works in 1810, and appeared in his brother's room while he was reproducing Wilkie's Blind Fiddler, the sight of which still further stimulated his enthusiasm. His hesitation between the domestic and landscape branch of his art was brought to a termination on seeing the works of Cuyp, Paul Potter, and other Dutch masters in London ; although he still sometimes employed his brush on interiors and farmyard scenes.' Recog- nising how little an academic education could do beyond culti- vating the mere rudiments of art, he at once betook himself to nature, and in the suburbs of London, especially near Chelsea, where he lived, closely studied those deHcate phases of nature so attractive in the dewy mornings and brilliant sunsets, which he subsequently so ably reproduced in his pictures of cattle, &c. Cunningham writes of him, that while "watching the changing hues of nature, he was sensible that a disease which flatters while it destroys, was gradually gaining upon him, as ice upon the stream, and robbing him of his vigour, bodily and mental. He still con- tinued his excursions among the fields : the consumption from which he was a sufferer, made him feel the beauty the more deeply of solitary places. He was to be often found in secluded nooks ; and the beautiful churchyard of Lee in Kent, near which he in his latter days resided, was a place where he frequently wandered. But change of air and scene brought no improvement to his health ; his looks began to fade ; he could scarcely take his customary walk in the fields, or use his note-book and pencil. He is still remembered about Lewisham and Lee as one who was to be found in lonely walks making sketches. . . . On finding that 270 ART IN SCOTLAND. death was near, he desired his brother John to bury him in the village church of Lee, which forms the background ot several of his studies, and resigned himself calmly to his fate. He died on the 27th July 181 6, aged twenty-eight years. His dying request could not, it seems, be complied with ; parochial etiquette forbade the burial of a stranger, even of genius, in the church of Lee, and he was interred in the churchyard of Lewisham." He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1812, 1813, 1814, and 1816, the year of his death. His favourite subjects were evening and early morning scenes, with cattle, and other figures such as ploughmen, intro- duced ; and among his domestic subjects may be mentioned the Orphan Bird, in which a fisherman is feeding a little vic- tim, probably of some recent storm, assisted by his two children. Within the short space of six years, much curtailed by his in- sidious malady, he made a name for himself as one of the first pastoral painters of his time. Some interesting details of him occur in his brother's * Progress of a Painter in the Nineteenth Century, containing Conversations and Remarks on Art,' in which James figures under the name of Knox. William Kidd, who possessed a considerable reputation in his time for figure-painting, gave more promise in his youth than was fulfilled in after-years, on account of neglecting his own interest. He went to London, probably about 1820 or 1821, where he ex- hibited occasionally at the Royal Academy — for the first time, however, in 181 7. He sometimes painted sportsmen, dogs, &c., but his works were chiefly of a domestic kind, such as his Jolly Beggars (R.A., 1846)— *• See the smoking bowl before us, Mark our jovial, ragged ring ; Round and round take up the chorus, And in raptures let us sing. " Some of his pictures have been engraved, among which are a series of twelve illustrations from Burns, engraved by John Shury, and published in 1832. His works cannot be said to be of a very high class, and are usually deficient in diversity of character. SIR WILLIAM ALLAN. 2/1 David Roberts, in his diary, February 4, 1863, the year in which Kidd died, mentions, — " William Kidd here with the old story — a distress put into his house — ;£"5." On his death on the 24th December 1863, in the same diary: "Poor fellow, he was one of those sons of genius quite incapable of managing his worldly affairs, and had lived from hand to mouth, as the saying is, all his days. All my attempts to help him seemed to have no effect j but latterly, with ^^50 yearly from the Academy and other helps, he must have been as well off as he ever had been at any former period of his life." William Lizars, who showed great talent as a painter before taking seriously to engraving (under which class of artists he will be found noticed), had some influence in developing the art in Scotland. In the year 18 16, William Weir died. He studied in Italy, and was known as a painter of history, portraits, subjects from Scottish song, and representations of rural manners. His works, however, are said to be of no great excellence, being deficient in most of the important requisites of art.^ One of the most distinguished among the early Scottish artists was Sir William Allan, the first president of the Scottish Academy after it received its charter of incorporation. He was born in Edinburgh in 1782, and early evinced a talent for art, which led to him being apprenticed to a coachbuilder, with a view to paint- ing armorial bearings, monograms, &c., on the door-panels. He was for several years in attendance at the Trustees' Academy, which he joined immediately after Graham's appointment, and where he sat beside David Wilkie, with whom he contracted a life-enduring friendship. At the termination of his apprenticeship he went to London, where he attended the schools of the Royal Academy, and exhibited a Gipsy Boy and Ass at the Academy in 1805. Finding little encouragement, and being as energetic as he was enthusiastic, he determined to go abroad. Selecting the Russian capital as his destination, he embarked on a ship bound for Riga, which by stress of weather was obliged to run into the ^ Contemporary notice. 2/2 ART IN SCOTLAND. port of Memel. Here he took temporary lodgings, and painted a few portraits, including one of the Danish consul, to whom he had been introduced by the ship's captain. Being determined to reach St Petersburg, he proceeded by the overland route, in which he encountered considerable risk by having to pass through a portion of the Russian army, then being concentrated to contest the battle of Austerlitz with the French invaders. Arrived at St Petersburg, he set himself in the first place to acquire the language, of which he had already picked up a little on the journey, and, by means of introductory letters, made the ac- quaintance among others of Sir Alexander Crichton, physician to the Imperial family, by whose good offices he received several commissions for portraits. He afterwards spent a considerable time travelling into the interior, filling his book with sketches of Circassians, Tartars, and Turks in their native tents and huts, by the shores of the Sea of Azof, the Kuban river, and the Black Sea, studying their history and customs, and collecting art pro- perties in the form of arms and costumes. On account of the confusion into which the country was thrown by the invasion of Napoleon, he resolved in 1812 to return home, and after a year or two of further adventures, reached his native country, being away about nine years. He seems during this time to have sent home some of his work, as at the Royal Academy in 1809 he exhibited a picture of Russian peasants keeping holiday ; but more important results of his travels appeared at the Academy in 18 15, when he was represented by his picture of a Circassian Prince sell- ing two Boys of his own Nation. This picture was purchased by a hundred persons, including Sir Walter Scott, Lord Wemyss, Lord Fife, James Wilson, and Lockhart, who subscribed ten guineas each, after which it was raffled. Lord Wemyss being the success- ful winner, and Lord Fife gaining another small picture which was added by way of a second prize. These were the only peers on the hst. This picture at the Academy was accompanied by a Jewish Merry-making, and Bashquiers conducting Convicts to Siberia. In 1816 he exhibited a Circassian Chief selling Cap- SIR WILLIAM ALLAN. 2/3 tives ; another Eastern subject in 1817 ; a Press-gang in 1818; followed by his important picture of the Murder of Archbishop Sharp in 182 1 ; John Knox admonishing Queen Mary appeared in 1823 ; the Regent Murray shot by Bothwellhaugh in 1825 ; Auld Robin Gray in 1826 ; and other important works in various sub- sequent years. In 1816 he exhibited a number of his pictures and sketches, in addition to his collection of costumes and arms, in Edinburgh, where he was living. The Grand Duke Nicholas being in the Scottish capital at that time, is mentioned as having visited this exhibition, and talking for a considerable time with the artist in French and Russ, minutely inspecting every picture, and expressing his surprise and gratification at seeing the various tribes of Circassians, Cossacks, &c., so correctly represented. Several of the pictures were purchased for the imperial collection at St Petersburg, and the Duke on leaving expressed his wish that if the painter should ever revisit Russia, he would wait on him.^ Scott, writing in 1819 to the Duke of Buccleuch regarding a portrait of him which the latter wished done for his library at Bowhill, speaks in the highest terms of Allan's portraits, — a branch of art which he practised a little, although his predilections naturally were for history, — and Sir Walter expresses the wish that Allan should be the painter in preference to Raeburn, who had " twice made a Chowder-headed person " of him. In the same letter he says, " Allan has made a sketch which I shall take to town with me when I can go, in hopes Lord Stafford, or some other picture-buyer, may fancy it and order a picture. The subject is the Murder of Archbishop Sharp on Magus Moor, prodigiously well treated. The savage ferocity of the assassins, crowding one on another to strike at the old prelate on his knees, — contrasted with the old man's figure, and that of his daughter endeavour- ing to interpose for his protection, and withheld by a ruffian of milder mood than his fellows ; the dogged fanatical serenity of Rathillet's countenance, who remained on horseback witnessing with stern fanaticism the murder he did not choose to be active ^ Scots Magazine. S 274 ART IN SCOTLAND. in, lest it should be said he struck out of private revenge, — are all amazingly well combined in the sketch. . . . Constable has offered Allan ;£"3oo to make sketches for an edition of the ' Tales of My Landlord ' and other works of that cycle, and says he will give him the same sum next year ; so, from being pinched enough, this very deserving artist suddenly finds himself at his ease. He was long at Odessa with the Duke of Richelieu, and is a very interesting person." ^ He about this time painted a portrait of the poet's son for the library at Abbotsford, and Scott subsequently interested himself very considerably in obtaining subscribers for the engraving of the Murder of Archbishop Sharp. Beginning to suffer from an affection of the eyes, and being further impelled by a love of travel, he set off for the Continent, wintering in Rome, visiting Naples and other places in Italy, in addition to Constan- tinople and Greece, and returned home in renewed health and vigour. His next important picture was the Slave Market at Constantinople, painted in 1834, which was followed by his •election as Royal Academician, having been elected an Associate in 1826. The old desire for travel now led him off to Spain, from whence he passed into West Barbary, returning home through Andalusia. He now engaged himself on several Scottish historical as well as Spanish subjects, and in 1838 was elected president ■of the Royal Scottish Academy, which then received its charter. In order to paint a Battle of Waterloo, he made several visits to France and the scene of the conflict, and the picture exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1843 was purchased by the hero of the ffght, for Apsley House ; a duplicate of the same subject was sent to the Westminster competition. Sir David Wilkie having died a year or two previously, Allan was appointed Queen's Limner for Scotland in 1842, with the accompanying honour of knighthood; and two years later revisited Russia, where he painted his picture of Peter the Great teaching his Subjects the Art of Shipbuilding, now in the Winter Palace at St Petersburg. The remaining six years of his life were spent entirely in Edinburgh, where he died on 1 Lockhart's Life of Scott. SIR WILLIAM ALLAN. 275 the 23d February 1850, from an attack of bronchitis, at the age of sixty-eight. With undiminished energy and that love of work so characteristic of the man, he had caused himself to be carried into his painting-room, where be breathed his last in front of his un- finished picture of the Battle of Bannockburn, the last work on which he had been engaged. He painted numerous subjects from Scottish history, and gave a great impetus to that branch of art in Scotland. He also painted a picture of the peasant bard of much poetical feeling, representing him seated in his working attire with a pen in his hand, but in a much roomier apartment than any contained in the farmhouse of Mossgiel.^ About a year after his death, in accordance with his desire an exhibition of about fifty of his paintings, besides sketches and studies, was held in Hill's gallery in Edinburgh, to which her Majesty, the Duke of Welling- ton, the Duke of Bedford, and others, lent pictures. For the last twenty-four years of his life he held the position of head-master in the Trustees' Academy, and whatever loss the student may have sustained by his absence on his travels during that time, was probably fully compensated by being under the direction of a man of his culture, energy, and enthusiasm. He was on intimate terms with the leading men in Edinburgh, and was one of those artists seceding from the Royal Institution, who expressed their willing- ness to rank only as Associates on seeking admission to the Scottish Academy, when others of inferior merit, but of superior estimation of their own talents, sought to rank as full Academicians. Allan was thus one of the most prominent men in Edinburgh in his time. Lord Cockburn wrote with some little pride at having been present at the public dinner given to him on the 9th of March 1838, on the occasion of his being made president of the Academy, and speaks of him as an excellent, simple, modest man. The chair on that occasion was occupied by Lauder.^ He was soaked in chivalry and medievalism ; often spoke of the proces- sion of the knights at the famous Eglinton Tournament as sur- passing all that he had ever seen in brilliancy of colour — an 1 Chambers's Burns. 2 Memorials of Henry Cockburn, 1874. 276 ART IN SCOTLAND. attempted revival of the pageantry of the middle ages, the first day of which was one of remorseless rain — and his studio was one of the sights of Scotland, often spoke of then. A writer in ' Black- wood's Magazine '1 says, " The impression made upon my mind the first time I entered his gallery was one both of astonishment and delight. I felt as if I had been suddenly transported into the land itself of gems, and tiaras, and bashaws, and banditti. I could in a moment imagine myself in some cool and magnificent saloon of Bagdad or Abydos. I was perfectly at home, and began to look about with eagerness for the Harouns, Giaffars, the Hassans, the Leilas, and the Zobeidas, with whom of old I had been acquainted." The author of ' Peter's Letters ' describes the same apartment : " The wainscot is completely covered with rich clusters of military accoutrements, Turkish scimitars, Circassian bows and quivers, hauberks of twisted mail from Caucasus, daggers, dirks, javelins, and all manner of long unwieldy fowling-pieces — Georgian, Ar- menian, and Tartar. These are arranged for the most part in circles, having shields and targets of bone, brass, and leather for their centres. Helmets of all kinds are hung above these from the roof, and they are interspersed with most gorgeous draperies of shawls, turbans, and saddle-cloths. Nothing can be more beautiful than the effect of the whole ; and indeed I suppose it is, so far as it goes, a complete facsimile of the barbaric magnificence of the interior decorations of an Eastern palace. The exterior of the artist himself harmonised a good deal with his furniture ; for he was arrayed, by way of robe-de-chambrey in a dark Circassian vest, the breast of which was loaded with innumerable quilted lurking-places, originally no doubt intended for weapons of war- fare, but now occupied with the harmless shafts of hair-pencils ; while he held in his hand the smooth cherry-wood stalk of a Turkish tobacco-pipe, converted very happily into a palette-guard. A swarthy complexion, and a profusion of black hair, tufted in a wild though not ungraceful manner, together with a pair of large sparkling eyes looking out from under strong shaggy brows, full 1 December 1817. SIR WILLIAM ALLAN. 277 of vivacious and ardent expression, were scarcely less speaking witnesses of the life of roaming adventure which, I was told, this fine artist had led. In spite of his bad health, which was indeed but too evident, his manners seemed to be full of a light and play- ful sportiveness, which is by no means common among the people of our nation, still less among the people of Scotland ; and this again was, every now and then, exchanged for a depth of enthu- siastic earnestness, still more evidently derived from a sojourn among men whose blood flows through their veins with a heat and a rapidity to which the North is a stranger." His portrait by him- self is in the Scottish National Gallery, where he is by no means so well represented as one would expect. His unfinished Battle of Bannockburn there, is a large and rather empty-looking canvas, in which the landscape predominates. If one may venture to speak of it in its unfinished state, it is evident that it was his in- tention to give a general representation of the conflict which so importantly aflected the future relations of Scotland with the sister kingdom of England : along the centre of the picture the battle is going on in an irregular line, near to the right extremity of which Bruce on a white horse is a prominent figure, urging on the combatants. The foreground is broken up by detached groups of fallen and wounded men and horses, and the middle distance is occupied by masses of the opposing armies. In consequence of this treatment, the figures look somewhat insignificant, as if the human action had been rather subordinated to a general repre- sentation. The picture measures over 16 feet in length, and was presented by Mr H. C. Blackburn. Perhaps his best picture is the Battle of Prestonpans, not so large as the Bannockburn, admirably expressed and painted, in which the principal group near the centre is emphasised by a white horse, which Allan was fond of introducing into such subjects. Alexander Chisholm may be said to have been a follower of Sir William Allan in regard to subject and style. He was born at Elgin in 1792 or 1793, some ten years later than Allan, and was intended by his father to be a weaver, then not quite such a 2/8 ART IN SCOtC^^TB:' humble calling as it has now become since the introduction of machinery. He wrought at the loom for some time at Peterhead, but did not take to the work, and, while a mere boy, walked to Aberdeen, where his efforts at drawing portraits coming under the notice of some of the members of the synod, then holding a meet- ing, he was encouraged to prosecute his study. In about his twentieth year he went to Edinburgh, and received some patronage from Lord Elgin and the amateur artist the Earl of Buchan. He was for some time an assistant in the Trustees' Academy, during which he married one of his private pupils, Susanna Stewart Eraser, and removed to London in 1818. Although he painted a number of portraits, he is mostly known now by his subjects from Scottish history and romance, which were at one time very popular in the form of engravings : the most notable of these is a large mezzotint of the Battle of Chevy Chase. He was an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy in London from 182 1, when he appeared as a portrait -painter, and where in 1843 ^^ exhibited his picture of the Lords of the Congregation taking the Oath of the Covenant, which was exhibited in Edinburgh in the year in which he died. For about nine years before his death, which occurred at Rothesay on the 3d October 1847, he suffered from ill health, and expired while engaged on a picture illustrative of the Free Church contest, which had been commissioned by Mr Agnew, the well-known Manchester dealer. He also painted successfully in water-colours. The name of John Steven occurs among those who originally projected the Scottish Academy, of which he was a foundation member. He was born in Ayr about 1793, where he practised portrait -painting, but subsequently went to London, and there distinguished himself by obtaining two silver medals at the Royal Academy schools. He cultivated a severe and close study of the old masters during a residence of many years in Rome, where he painted Pilgrims at their Devotions in an Italian Convent, one of his most important works, exhibited in 1831. He exhibited in Edinburgh with considerable credit so early as 1824. Two years ROBERT EDMONSTONE. 279 later, a contemporaneous notice occurs of a picture of Queen Mary, shown in Cowan & Strachan's shop in Edinburgh, — "An excellent work, finished in a style breathing the spirit and the power of the old masters. The figure of the queen is graceful, the drapery beautiful, and the accessory parts of the picture chaste and finished." He is represented in the Scottish National Gallery by a standard-bearer, and died in Edinburgh in 1868. A contemporary of Steven was the better known Robert Edmon- stone, originally a watchmaker's apprentice in Kelso, where he was born in 1794. He went to Edinburgh to pursue the study of art, where, through the merits of his work, he attracted the attention, afterwards ripening into friendship, of Hume and others. He subsequently went to London, where he made some reputation, and spent some years at Rome and the other Italian art cities, which he devoted to study. His picture of the Ceremony of Kissing the Chains of St Peter, painted in Rome, was exhibited and sold in the British Gallery in 1833, the year previous to his death. While in Italy he contracted a fever which obliged him to leave Rome for London in 1832. He endeavoured to resume work again, but finding himself unable, left London for his native Kelso, where he died on the 21st September 1834. He was very successful in his portraits of children. ^ jSfote. — Walter Geikie, with one or two of the other artists born within the eighteenth century, who abandoned painting for en- graving, or who are better known by such work, will be found among the professors of engraving. ^ Scottish Nation. 28o CHAPTER XIV. Landscape - painting in the early nineteenth century — The Nasmyths — G. Walker — Thomson of Duddingsto7i — H. W. Williaftis — J, F. Willianis — Andrew Wilson— John Wilson— The Scketkys—Ewbank—P. Gibson— Gibb — Gilfillan — Donaldson — Barker — David Roberts. To. the natives of a country no other landscapes are so beautiful as their own. The early Dutch masters, although introducing scenery unknown in their own land into their pictures, have still left us as their great representative works those of Rembrandt, Hobbema, and Van der Veldt ; and although Ruysdael, with a few others, have painted some of the wilder features of natural scenery with marked success, their sympathies always appear more in harmony with the low flat village, the sandy dune, and undulating pathway. To a Scottish artist, the mist trailing on the mountain- side, sweep of Highland river or expanse of .savage moorland, seem more adapted for painting from than the Dutch level, the clear expanse of Italian lake, or the Swiss valley ; and while he feels more capable of grasping the character of the less lofty mountains of Scotland than those of the Alps, he is more successful in rendering the rich glowing sunsets of our western shores, than the exquisitely tender colour of the Alpine glow, with its ever- shifting tints of tender yellow and rose-bloom on untrodden snow. It is almost within the memory of a few still living that the art of landscape-painting in Scotland first took its position in the works of the Nasmyths and Thomson of Duddingston, traces of whose style are still observable in the best of our landscapes. Their style was the style of nature, and their successors have only sur- ALEXANDER NASMYTH. 28 1 passed their works where they have searched more deeply into her secrets, and wrought more directly from the source of their inspiration, thus imbuing theirU^^ork with the only style which will outlive fugitive fashion. Some reference has already been made to the earlier Scottish artists who practised landscape-painting, the most important of whom were tempted abroad, and thus exercised little or no influence on the formation of its style in Scotland. Although a number of landscapes were painted in the eighteenth century, none were of any great consequence. Old Norrie has been mentioned as practising the art, mostly in a decorative form, so early as the first half of the century. Jacob More and Alexander Runciman, as already said, acquired the rudiments of their art from Norrie ; and from the second of these, Alexander Nasmyth, who is justly styled the father of landscape-painting in Scotland, received the elements of his art education. Nasmyth occupies much the same position in Scottish landscape-painting which Raeburn and Wilkie hold in portrait and figure subjects. Before the advent of these, our artists may be said to have been only feeling their way, and in those two instances they have hardly been excelled to the present day. Of the three, Raeburn had the longest professional pedigree, Wilkie the shortest, while Nasmyth was probably the least indebted to his few predecessors in art. Nasmyth was descended from an old Scottish family, the tradi- tional and other details of which have been duly chronicled in the Autobiography of his son James, of engineering fame. The grand- father as well as the father of Alexander were both named Michael, and both practised in Edinburgh as builders and architects. The father, who possessed a good collection of then rare and expensive books on architecture, erected some good and substantial dwelling- houses in the city. He died at a ripe old age in 1803, leaving two sons. Michael, the elder, took to the sea in preference to his father's business, and after varied commercial ventures, had a part in many naval engagements, ultimately dying in Greenwich Hospital, where he was often visited by his brother. Alexander was 282 ART IN SCOTLAND. bom on the 9th September 1758, in a house in the Grassmarket7 opposite to the old inn from which the first coach was started on the Newcastle route, concerning which James relates that the notice bore the curious intimation that the coach would start " ilka Tuesday at twa o'clock in the day, God wullin'; but whether or no, on Wednesday." His mother, a neat and handy woman, taught him his alphabet, and also encouraged in his infancy the taste which he inherited from his father. The elementary part of his education being thus attained, he was passed at an early age to Mammy Smith's school, where he was taught to read his Bible and learn his Carritch, as the Catechism was then called. The Mammy at this time had several boys of good families under her care, one of whom was Erskine, afterwards so distinguished as the leader of the forlorn-hope at Seringapatam, and who along with Nasmyth and other boys sorely troubled the old wives of the neighbourhood with their pranks. A favourite nocturnal amuse- ment was to climb the Castle-hill, from which they set adrift a barrel filled with loose stones, the ratthng of which on the house- roofs brought the indwellers to their garret-windows with dips and lanterns, to ascertain the cause of the unusual noise. After a short time at the High School, he was further taught arithmetic and mathematics by his father, and at his own request was apprenticed to a coachbuilder named Crighton, by whom he was employed to paint ciphers and armorial bearings on the coach-panels. During this time he applied for admission to the evening class at the Trustees' Academy, and was at once admitted by Runciman, to whom he had submitted specimen drawings, and where he drew for some considerable time from the cast. Allan Ramsay, who was then in a good position as a portrait-painter in London, called on his old friend Crighton during a visit to Edinburgh, and was attracted by the skilful work of young Nasmyth. After a good deal of persuasion, backed up by the payment of a sum of money by Ramsay, Nasmyth was carried off to London, to work among the other assistants in the portrait-painter's studio. There, in his element, he wrought with enthusiasm, and Reinagle, who was then ALEXANDER NASMYTH. 283 with Ramsay, made an oil-sketch of the boy-artist at work, still preserved by the Nasmyth family, but which is evidently too child- like in appearance, as he was then about seventeen years of age. A droll story of him is related by his son James, in evidence of his ingenuity in adapting himself to circumstances. He had arranged to escort a sweetheart to Ranelagh, where every one went in full dress, the bucks and other swells in long striped silk stockings. Nasmyth of course had only one pair of these, which he washed himself, and hung at the fire to dry, but on going to remove them, found that he had placed them so near that they were singed and burned past all remedy. Being determined not to lose his outing, or to appear in unfashionable array, the paint- pot was resorted to in the emergency, and he had the gratification of escorting his sweetheart, in what were supposed to be a pair of black and white stockings, the very admirable fit of which was the envy of the other beaux, some of whom were curious to know where he had purchased them. He returned to Edinburgh in 1778, where he began practice as a portrait-painter, and was early employed by Patrick Miller of Dalswinton. This gentleman, who had been a banker, after retiring from business amused himself by making various mechanical inventions and contrivances. He was the inventor of the carronade, which soon afterwards came into use in the royal navy, which is said to have largely contributed to the British successes, by its advantages over the slower-charged long-bore guns previously used. Mr Miller was at this time devising the application of steam as a propelling power for ships, and finding Nasmyth as ingenious in mechanics as he was skilful in drawing, got him to make a number of drawings connected with his contrivance, which were afterwards engraved and published. The Autobiography of James contains a woodcut from a drawing by the artist of the first steamboat, which was floated on Dalswinton Loch on the 14th October 1788. It represents a kind of small pleasure-boat, and the figures which appear on board are those of Patrick Miller, Sir William Monteith, the poet Burns, William Taylor, and the artist. 284 ART IN SCOTLAND. The previous engineering experiments having absorbed a great deal of Nasmyth's time, which ought to have been devoted to his art, Miller advanced ;£^5oo to enable him to go to Italy. He accordingly left Scotland in December 1782, and remained away two years studying from the old masters, varied by occasional practice in landscape-sketching in and about the suburbs of Rome and other Italian cities. Immediately after his return to Edinburgh he resumed his portrait-painting, with such success that he was soon able to repay Miller's loan, and in 1786 married Barbara, daughter of Sir William Foulis of Woodhall, who was a distant relative. He received a considerable amount of employment from people of rank and wealth. His portraits were usually full-lengths, the figures in which were from 12 to 14 inches in height, and arranged as groups in conversation, with sometimes a garden or bit of landscape forming the background : examples of these are at Minto House and Dalmeny Park. He lived at this time in Wardrop's Court, close to the lodging of Robert Burns, who had recently come to Edinburgh, and it was during the first year of his married life that he painted the portrait of the poet now in the Scottish National Gallery, on which he only spent a few hours.^ It has been stated that this was painted at the request of Creech the bookseller, as a frontispiece, and who is also mentioned as having introduced the poet and painter at breakfast in his own house. It is more probable, however, that the two first met at the house of Patrick Miller, and James Nasmyth distinctly states that it was presented to Mrs Burns. It afterwards passed into the possession of Colonel W. Burns, who bequeathed it to the National Gallery, in which it now hangs. It has been elsewhere stated that Nasmyth had six sittings. ^ It was never quite finished, and notwith- standing the criticism passed upon it by Sir Walter Scott as being less farmer-like than the famous original, and by others as being too narrow in the face, neck, and shoulders, and too pale in colour, it still retains its position as the most authentic likeness existing ^ James Nasmyth, for this and many other details. See Smiles's Life. * Alexander Fraser, R.S.A., in Art Journal. ALEXANDER NASMYTH. 285 of the poet. It was engraved in stipple in the same year, 1787, by Beugo, who had the advantage of several sittings from Burns when it was nearly finished; but although he took great pains with it, Nasmyth was never quite satisfied — the later mezzotint by Walker receiving his highest commendation. Replicas of this portrait are in the National Portrait Gallery in London, and at Auchendrane. He painted another from memory in 1827, which was reproduced in Lockhart's ' Life of Burns.' Many rambles were enjoyed by Nasmyth and Burns, especially to the King's Park and the summit of Arthur's Seat ; and it is related of the pair, that after spending a convivial night at a tavern in High Street with other choice spirits, who kept up the talk long after the hour now prescribed by the Forbes Mackenzie Act, they found themselves in the street about three o'clock on a bright June morning. Burns, looking up at the pure clear sky, said, " It'll never do to go to bed on such a lovely morning as this ; let's awa' to Roslin Castle ; " and off they started. " Passing a cottage a few miles out of town, they heard a frightful noise within, and going up to learn what was the matter, found that the sounds proceeded from a poor man whose reason had given way. Mr Nasmyth used afterwards to describe in thrilling terms the appalling exclamations of the lunatic, and the effect which they had upon Burns. The two friends afterwards continued their walk to the hills, had a fine morning ramble, and having thus cleared off the effects of their dissipation, came down to Roslin for breakfast." ^ At Roslin Castle, Burns stood speechless and motionless under the great arch over the path leading down to the river, while Nasmyth some little distance off pencilled a hasty portrait-sketch on a scrap of paper. ^ Such exploits, however, on the part of the painter, must have been very infrequent, as he was an active and enthusiastic worker, his eye retaining its clearness and his hand its cunning up till his eigh- tieth year. Being an outspoken Liberal in politics, at that time when 1 Chambers's Life of Burns, 1S51. 2 james Nasmyth's Life. 286 ART IN SCOTLAND. political feeling ran so high, he frequently found himself strongly opposed in his opinions to those of his sitters, and it is understood that this led him in 1793 to abandon portrait for landscape, for which, however, he had always a strong predilection. His success had enabled him to have a house and studio built for himself from his own designs, at 47 York Place, in which he began to paint landscape and also to receive pupils. Among those who benefited by his advice or instruction, were Wilkie, Grant, Roberts, Stanfield, W. Allan, Grecian Williams, Geddes, and Thomson of Duddingston. His great abilities as a scene-painter are well known, one of his most celebrated productions in that branch of art being the drop in the old Theatre Royal in Queen Street, Glasgow, which was destroyed by fire. This and the other scenery in the same theatre was highly praised, especially by David Roberts and W. L. Leitch, and represented the justly celebrated view on the Clyde from Dalnottar Hill, before it was destroyed by the now excessive introduction of steamers and railways. Re- ferring to this, Leitch wrote : " As a scene, I have never seen anything to compare with it, and I have seen the principal theatres in France, Italy, and Germany, besides everything of the kind in London. . . . The perfection of the execution was wonderful. You felt as if you could pull aside the branch of a tree and find another beneath it. I never saw painting so like nature, and this was its charm." ^ His acquaintance with Clarkson Stan- field, or " Young Stanny " as he was called, originated from his connection with this theatre, where the English artist's father was prompter, and subsequently an actor. David Roberts relates how " Stanny had shown his sketch-book to the veteran artist Nasmyth, and told him that he wished to form a style of his own. * Young man,' exclaimed the experienced artist, ' there's but one style an artist should endeavour to attain, and that is the style of nature ; the nearer you get to nature the better.' " Among other scenery painted by Nasmyth is mentioned that for the Heart of Mid- Lothian, for the Theatre Royal of Edinburgh. ^ Mr Macgeorge's Life of W. L. Leitch. ALEXANDER NASMYTH. 28/ While visiting various country seats in his capacity as a portrait- painter, he was frequently consulted as to the best method of laying out grounds, advice which was at first given gratuitously and as an amateur. After the death of Lancelot Brown, known as " Capability " Brown from his frequent use of that word in the practice of his profession as a landscape-gardener, Nasmyth made this also a part of his profession, and to his taste and skill many of the Scottish nobility and gentry owe some of the finest of their park scenery. His son, the celebrated inventor of the steam- hammer, relates how the Duke of Argyll consulted him as to the possibility of getting trees or shrubs planted on an inac- cessible spot on one of his estates. Nasmyth got some small tin cans made, which he filled with the necessary seeds. These he fired from a cannon pointed to the spot to be sown, where the seeds took root, as he some years afterwards saw, successfully. Besides being a good mechanic, he was a skilful architect, and to his suggestions his native city is indebted for not a few of the improvements made in his time. The little classic temple of Hygeia at St Bernard's Well was built from his design, as also the Dean Bridge, with some alterations. The idea of the temple was taken from that of the Sibyl's Temple at Tivoli ; it contained a statue of Hygeia by a London sculptor named Coade, and the foundation-stone is stated to have borne the following inscription : "Erected for the benefit of the public at the sole expense of Francis Garden, Esq. of Troupe, one of the senators of the College of Justice; a.d. 1789. Alexander Nasmyth, architect; John Wil- son, builder." The magistrates of Edinburgh in 1 815, in testimony of their appreciation of his services in these respects, presented him with a gift of ;£"2oo, accompanied with a complimentary letter addressed to "Alexander Nasmyth, architect." He also supplied a design for the Nelson Monument, which was put aside on account of slightly exceeding the funds at disposal, in favour of the now standing erection. He was the inventor of the bow- and-string method as it was called, afterwards so extensively used 288 ART IN SCOTLAND. in roofing large areas ; and also of riveting by compression stead of by strokes of the hammer, those used being called Sun- day rivets, on account of the absence of the noise caused by ham- mering. His architectural knowledge was of much assistance to Sir James Hall in the compilation of his work on the ' Origin of Gothic Architecture.' He was a frequent exhibitor in the Royal Academy in London, to which he first contributed in 1813 a View in Scotland, followed in 1816 by two pictures consisting of views of and from Culzean Castle; and afterwards at intervals exhibited various Scottish views, such as the High Street and Lawnmarket of Edinburgh, the Port of Leith, &c. He died on the loth of April 1840; and by a strange coincidence, the last picture which he painted, entitled Going Home, represented a weary labourer crossing a bridge after his day's work done. He sometimes made little models of old buildings and such- like for painting from, and by a curious whim had constructed a family tree, as he called it, for which each of his family made a branch, which he fastened to the trunk with wire.^ Of his manner of working, Mr A. Fraser, R.S.A., writes : "Little is now to be learnt. He drew-in his subject-matter carefully with black-lead pencil, and then put in the masses of shadow with burnt sienna. He mixed up tints for his skies, and used largely a colour he called peach-stone grey, made from calcined peach-stones. His pictures are sometimes found a good deal cracked. However, they have retained their colour and brilliancy well. When a picture attributed to Alexander Nasmyth appears dull and heavy in colour it may be set down as a copy ; indeed few artists of recent days have been more copied. Nasmyth made sketches in pencil from nature, and sometimes studies in oil to work from, but he never painted a picture altogether on the spot. From having spent so much of his time in teaching the mechanical pro- cesses of his art, he became latterly somewhat of a mannerist ; but his works possess so much artistic feeling, and so many ^ James Nasmyth's Life. I ALEXANDER NASMYTH. 289 varied excellences, that a good specimen of Alexander Nasmyth is a valuable addition to any collection of pictures.^ He was a member of the already-mentioned Poker Club, and subsequently of the Dilettanti, where he associated much with the leading artists, and such kindred spirits as Sir Walter Scott, Henry Cockburn, Professor Wilson, the Ettrick Shepherd, and David Bridges, the secretary, clothier, picture-dealer, and director-general of the fine arts in Scotland, as his joking friends dubbed him.^ By an understanding which still regulates some of the Con- tinental art clubs, the drinks were restricted to such as were within the means of all. Here they were limited to ale or whisky- toddy ; and Sir William Allan has left a picture of a full meeting of the Dilettanti, in which Nasmyth is seen making an explanatory diagram on the table with his wetted finger. He officiated as chairman at the dinner given to Raeburn when that artist received the honour of knighthood, and at his death was in receipt of an annuity from the Edinburgh Royal Institution. In addition to those already mentioned, he educated his own family in art, more especially his daughters, who also attended to their house- hold duties. His family consisted of Patrick, the eldest, named after Patrick Miller, born in 1787; Jane, born 1788; Barbara, 1790; Mar- garet, 1791; Elizabeth, 1793; Anne, 1798; Charlotte, 1804; followed by three sons, Alexander, George, and James; and Mary, who died in her infancy. Of these Alexander was a favourite, who died early in youth, and beside whom, in St Cuthbert's churchyard in Edinburgh, the father was buried in accordance with his desire. The mother died in 1846. On the death of the artist, Sir David Wilkie wrote to his widow, sympathising with her in the loss of one who was his earliest pro- fessional friend, adding : " He was the founder of the landscape ^ Art Journal. 2 Bridges' customers naturally forsook his clothier's shop on account of his inattention to the business. He afterwards devoted himself to picture criticism, in which for a time he possessed a monopoly. T 290 ART IN SCOTLAND. school of painting of Scotland, and by his taste and talent has many years taken a lead in the patriotic aim of enriching his native land with the representations of her romantic scenery ; and as the friend and contemporary of Ramsay, Gavin Hamilton, and the Runcimans, may be said to have been the last remaining link that unites the present with the early dawn of the Scottish school of art." He was equally esteemed by his other artist friends, some of whom, including Stanfield and Roberts, he visited in London when placing his son James with Mr Maudsley the en- gineer. When John Linnell, about 1817, crossed the Border to get married at Gretna Green, and submitted specimens of his work to Nasmyth in Edinburgh, the Scotchman readily augured the brilliant future of that eminent artist. His son relates with just pride how his father in his eightieth year, full of life and intellect, on visiting the scene of his labours at the Bridgewater Foundry, was looked upon by the workmen with veneration as the personal friend of Burns, and chaired from the works to his son's house, where they parted from him with cheers and hearty wishes for his welfare. Besides his two portraits of Burns, he is represented in the Scottish National Gallery by the important picture of Stirling Castle, in a fine state of preservation : the foreground is composed of a large mass of trees and rock, occupying the left-hand side of the picture all in shade, the space between which and the distant castle and hills is filled by a wooded landscape, all beautifully painted with a full confident touch, free, and fine in colour. The well-balanced masses of light and shade, and colour, show the artist's mastery over his materials, and not less successful are a group of figures in the middle foreground. While there is a certain similarity with the work of Hobbema, it must be admitted that the Scotchman is the superior, in being less mechanical and conventional, and more directly suggestive of nature. Among his six daughters, Anne and Charlotte were the most successful as artists, and painted a number of very pleasing pictures, small in size but good in colour. For some years they PATRICK NASMYTH. 29I had drawing and painting classes in their father's house, which were very popular, and in which their father sometimes gave short lectures on the theory of the art. Anne was an exhibitor at the Royal Academy in London in 1830; probably it was she who was married to Terry the actor, and referred to thus in the ' Noctes Ambrosianae ' — " I believe the best judges are disposed to give Mrs Terry the palm, who now, since the death of her lamented husband, teaches painting in London with eminent success." The picture by Geddes in the National Gallery in London, which contains her portrait, has been already referred to. Mention may also be made of another member of this talented family — that is, David Nasmyth, a cousin, or in some other way re- lated to Alexander: he was an architect, and the classic church of St Andrew, off the Saltmarket of Glasgow, was built from his design. ^ The art which was so well represented by Alexander Nasmyth was carried to a higher state of perfection by his son Patrick. At a very early age he showed a strong love for landscape- painting, which it is said seriously interfered with his ordinary education. As a youth, he possessed a keen sense of humour, indulged in the reading of old-fashioned novels, was a fair violinist, and so fond of music that he whistled all the time he was at his easel. Having received his entire education in art from his father, whom he sometimes assisted in scene-painting, he went to London in 1808, immediately after which he began to exhibit in the Royal Academy. Although mostly settled there, he made frequent visits to his native city, and excursions into various parts of England. An ardent admirer of the works of Claude and others of the old masters, he imitated none, but drew his inspiration directly from nature, finding ample material for study in the neighbourhood in which he lived. In 18 14 he made the acquaintance of a Mr Barnes, with whom he resided for some time at Ringworth, near' Southampton, during which he made numerous sketches in the New Forest. From a similarity of style and treatment of his subjects, he was sometimes called the ^ Communicated by his grandson to Mr J. Sutcliffe, London. 292 ART IN SCOTLAND. English Hobbema ; but in all the qualities of art he far surpassed the most successful productions of the Dutch masters, and occu- pied a foremost position in the ranks of British artists. His colour is usually warm in tone, with a keener perception than that possessed by his father, in appreciating the relatively sharper touch of execution in approaching the foreground from the more distant parts. His style, being well finished, precise and delicate in touch, has made forgeries of his numerous works comparatively easy; and thus a large number of the works appearing in auc- tioneers' catalogues opposite to his name are merely copies or imitations, the production of which has been caused by the high prices obtained for his genuine works. He was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy in London, where in 1811 he showed a View of Loch Katrine; Windsor from Eton, and the Ferry of Inver, in 1812 ; a View near Epping Forest in 1813 ; Dumbarton Castle from Dalnottar Hill in 1 8 14; a View in the New Forest in 181 5, — continuing to ex- hibit tolerably regularly up till the year before his death, with the exception of the two or three previous years. Writing to his father in 18 15, he says, — " The prices of my pictures in the Gallery are, two at fourteen guineas each (small views in Hampshire), one at twelve guineas, and two fourteen guineas. They are all sold but one." These works, as his brother James remarked, would now bring from two to three hundred guineas each in the open market. He was early in his career run after by picture- dealers. Careless in the matter of money, which he very often wanted, it is said that he readily parted with his pictures at much less than their value, when the money offered was placed before him. His friends remonstrated with him in vain, and when the advisability of depositing some of his money in the bank was suggested, he received the advice by pointing to his pictures as a much more convenient one. He caught a severe cold while sketching from nature, in consequence of which he died at Lambeth on the 17th of August 1831, nine years before the death of his father, and at the age of forty-four. His last p. NASMYTH — G. WALKER. 293 moments were passed admiring from his deathbed the glories of the setting sun, which had been preceded by a violent thunder- stonn. His Glen Shira in the Scottish National Gallery, a fine broken landscape with a waterfall, is a good specimen of his art.^ One of the early Scottish landscape-painters now forgotten was G. Walker, who derives his chief claim to being mentioned from the fact that he held the office or dignity of landscape-painter to his Majesty. He is almost exclusively known by the illustrations to Cririe's 'Scottish Scenery,' published in London in 1803, containing twenty fairly executed views not particularly accurate, engraved 1 The following is a selection showing the prices realised by some of Patrick Nasmyth's pictures after his death : In 1843 a Woody Landscape with Water- fall, £Z9-, i8s. ; in 1848, a View in Hampshire with Cottages, 200 guineas ; in 1852, View on the Thames, Evening (36x24), ;i^i89 ; in 1856, View in Switzerland, £1^^, 5s. ; in 1857, a Gipsy Corner, 104 guineas— Carshalton Mill, with the artist's letter valuing it at ;!^I5, 140 guineas — and a View near Lewis, 251 guineas ; in 1859, Landscape, 255 guineas — the Waterfall, 305 guineas — and View of Windsor Castle, painted for the late owner, Lord Northwick, for ;^ioo, 560 guineas ; in i860, Clifton and Leigh Woods, with Bristol in distance, 550 guineas — and Entrance to Wood near New Forest, 150 guineas ; in 1862, small cabinet Landscape, 200 guineas ; 1863, View near Edinburgh, with Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags, 165 guineas — and Lane Scene, near Epping, 195 guineas, from the Bicknell collection ; same year. Landscape, road winding across a heath, with figures, old oak, and shed, 210 guineas — and Lake Scene, 156 guineas ; in 1866, View in Sussex, 350 guineas — and Bristol from Brandon Hill, ;!^76o ; in 1868, Landscape, with woman, child, donkey, &c., 630 guineas — View at Ringwood, ** the Ringwood picture," 1050 guineas — and Douglas Burn, near Inveraray, 405 guineas, from Mr Fallows' collection ; in 1870, View in Hampshire, with cottage, farm-build- ings, horse, and female, 1160 guineas, from Mr Bullock's collection ; in 1872, from the Gillott collection, ten works, sold from 141 to 1070 guineas, the latter high price being given for a small View of Cramond from the Firth of Forth, painted in 1827 — the Mouths of the Avon and Severn, fetching 954 ; in 1875, Waterfall, Glen Shira, ^^1470, from the Mendel collection; in 1876, among others from the Wynn Ellis collection, two Landscapes, with figures, 420 and 556 guineas ; in 1877, Carisbrook Castle, 530 guineas ; in 1881, Colonel Houldsworth's View in Hampshire, ;^493 ; in 1886, Woody Land- scape, with St Alban's Abbey in distance, 420 guineas ; and Turner's Hill, East Grimstead, 940 guineas, from Mr W. Graham's collection ; in 1888, a Woody Landscape (24x18), and the Falls of Shirra (38x26), for 580 and 1210 guineas respectively, from the collection of Mr J. Graham; in the same year, the Meeting of the Avon and Severn, 1500 guineas— and View in Hamp- shire, lOIO. 294 ART IN SCOTLAND. by W. Byrne. The preface to this work states that they were painted in crayons from sketches, and " may be seen at Mr Walker's Drawing and Painting Academy, Edinburgh, or in the course of the spring (if not previously disposed of) at Messrs Cadell and Davies's, London They are all of a cabinet size, highly finished, and elegantly framed." ^ His name appears in the London Academy catalogue of 1800, attached to a View of Dumbarton by Moonlight, and a View of Loch Tay. Next to Alexander Nasmyth, undoubtedly the artist who most influenced and aided in the development of landscape-painting in Scotland was the minister of Duddingston, the Rev. John Thom- son. In nearly all his works, many of which have unfortunately darkened, there is a broad, grand, impressive feeling, conveyed by means of his strong grip of effective masses of light and shadow. He delighted in the representation of the bold headlands of the coasts of his native country, sometimes lashed by stormy waves, and the ruins of feudal strongholds — ** Broad, massive, high, and stretching far, And held impregnable in war." These are varied occasionally by such scenes as the Shepher alludes to in the ' Noctes Ambrosianae,' where his works are described as giving " the notion o' a man that had loved nature afore he had studied art, and been let intil her secrets, when nane were by but their twa sel's, in neuks where the wimplin burnie plays, in open spats within the woods where you see naething but stems o' trees — stems o' trees — and a flicker o' broken light inter- spersing itsel' among the shadowy branches,--^or without ony con- cealment, in the middle o' some wide black moss — like the Moor o' Rannoch — as still as the shipless sea, when the winds are weary — and at nightfall in the weather-gleam o' the settin' sun, a dim object like a ghost, stan'in' alane by its single solitary sel'." Born on the ist of September 1778, in the manse of Dailly in Ayrshire, and passing his earlier years in that district of Scotland 1 Walker is also previously referred to in connection with Jacob More. i REV. JOHN THOMSON. 295 which figured so largely in the medieval history of his country, and afterwards translated to the still more historically interesting and picturesque neighbourhood of Edinburgh, it is not to be wondered at, with his early love for art, that his heart should have been, as Professor Veitch remarks, not only in the scenery but in the story of Scotland. " And we must keep in mind that this impulse, beginning at least in t8o8, only three years before the appearance of the ' Lay of the Last Minstrel,' and probably working long before, was not altogether in consequence of the literary work of Scott, but at least contemporary with it, and probably a cause of it, certainly a very helpful auxiliary." ^ His grandfather and great-grandfather, as well as his father, having been ministers of the Established Kirk of Scotland, it was thought wise to continue this further succession in the family, and he was accordingly sent to study for the pulpit in the University of Edin- burgh, where he received his ministerial licence on attaining his majority. In the following year he began to fill his father's place in the pulpit, and for five years ministered to the spiritual wants of his native place, and also dabbling in painting, having received some lessons from Alexander Nasmyth while in Edinburgh. He began his ministration at Duddingston in 1805, and appeared as an exhibitor at the first exhibition in Edinburgh three years later. On the institution of the Scottish Academy he was elected an honorary member, continuing to contribute as regularly to the fol- lowing exhibitions as he had done to those which preceded them. The duties of his profession, as well as the comparatively small extent to which the painters of that time wrought directly from nature, may have prevented him also from doing so ; hence we have more frequently an impression of nature rather than a reaHsation of actual facts and localities. Thus, in his fine view on the Firth of Clyde, he has given us a massive round-towered stronghold in the middle distance, opposed to Dumbarton Rock farther ofi", the nearest approach to or apology for which is the comparatively commonplace remains of Newark Castle at Port-Glasgow. The ^ Professor Veitch's Feeling for Nature in Scottish Poetry, 1887. 296 ART IN SCOTLAND. Studies for his pictures were made from nature in chalk or pencil, sometimes washed with colour, and not unfrequently, like other artists, when tallow-dips were more in use than now, made ex- periments in light and shade with candle-snuff.^ Many of his pictures have given way from too; free a use of asphaltum and megilp, besides the pernicious practice of laying his colours on an insufficiently hardened foundation of " parritch " as he called it, composed of flour boiled with vinegar.^ To his talent as an artist he added the accomplishments of an elegant classical scholar, was full of quaint humour, and no mean proficient on the violin and the flute. Sir Walter Scott in 1823 writes : "John Thomson of Duddingston has given me his most splendid picture, painted, he says, on purpose for me, — a true Scottish scene. It seems to me that many of our painters shun the sublime of our country by labouring to introduce trees where doubtless by search they might be found, but where certainly they make no conspicuous part of the landscape, being like some little folks who fill up a company, and put you to the proof before you own to have seen them. Now this is Fast Castle, famous both in history and legend. . . . The view looks from the land down on the ragged ruins, a black sky and a foaming ocean beyond them. There is more imagination in the picture than in any I have seen of a long time — a sort of Salvator Rosa's doings." This picture, which is now at Abbotsford, was engraved by Horsburgh for the ' Bride of Lammermoor,' and ranks, along with his Bass Rock, Martyr's Grave, and Dunluce Castle, as one of his finest works. When the collected edition of Scott's works was first projected, Sir Walter desired that they should be illustrated by Thomson, but was fortunately overruled by Cadell in favour of Turner. While this great artist was in Scotland making sketches for the work, he was Thomson's guest at Duddingston for a few days, in the course of which the minister and Grecian Williams accompanied him to sketch at Craigmillar Castle. Turner, however, moved away from his two companions and sketched apart, and no inducement, even 1 Mr A. Fraser, R.S.A., in Art Journal. 2 jbid. REV. JOHN THOMSON. 297 on the part of Mrs Thomson, feUcited a sight of his work.^ He was equally reticent in expressing any opinion of the minister's pictures, although seemingly full of good-humour ; would remark of the dining-room wall onvwhich one of Thomson's pictures was hung, that "the man ^ho did that could paint"; that Thomson beat him in the matter of frames, in allusion to the masses of gilded composition surrounding the pictures ; and finally adding, on passing Duddingston Loch on his departure, " By God, though, I envy you that piece of water ! " 2 His works, almost invariably of Scottish scenery, are often to be met with in the mansions of the Scottish gentry, more especially about the Lothians, and they may be said to be quite unknown south of the Tweed, except through the medium of such engravings as those in the * Provincial Antiquities of Scotland.' The Aberlady Bay, in the Scottish National Gallery, on its exhibition in 1822 made a great impression, and still retains a position as a good work of art. The Royal Scottish Academy possesses a View near Dud- dingston, the appearance of which some think suggestive of it being a joint production of Thomson and his wife. The latter was also very fond of art, and on her friends asking how on earth she could have thought of marrying the clergyman, she being rich, were answered that they just drew together. So extensive was Thomson's practice as an artist, that it is said his income from this source alone amounted in one year to ;^i8oo ; and that, when at the height of his popularity, he counted nine carriages in one forenoon with patrons at his door. We find him mentioned in the ' Life of Lord Jeffrey ' as a mem- ber of the Friday Club, which he joined in 1807. This was a Club entirely of literary and social characters, meeting weekly, at first on Fridays. The total number of names on the roll amounting to fifty, included, among other celebrities. Sir James Hall, Dugald Stewart, Rev. A. Alison, Henry Brougham, Malcolm Laing, and Professor Pillans. It expired under the fashionable bane of monthly banquets supplementing the modest weekly suppers. ^Mr A. Fraser R.S.A., in Art Journal. '^VaxA. 298 ART IN SCOTLAND. He was twice married : first to Isabella, daughter of the Rev. John Ramsay, minister of Kilmichael in Ayrshire. His second marriage was brought about in a somewhat romantic manner. Fanny, the daughter of Mr Spence, a celebrated London dentist, and widow of Mr Dalrymple of Cleland, when in the shop of a picture- dealer in Edinburgh was much taken by a View of the Fall of Foyers. She made inquiry as to the painter, obtained an introduction, and as she afterwards said, they drew together at once. Besides painting, she was very fond of music, interesting herself in its cultivation among the parishioners and others from Edinburgh. Thomson's eldest son John lost his life on board the Kent, an East Indiaman, which was burned at sea. He was first mate, and when the fire had overmastered the efforts of the crew to arrest its progress, took the place of the captain, who was help- less from dismay. During the conflagration he had the boats lowered, and managed to save all the passengers and crew ; but his heroic conduct in remaining to the last cost him his life, and the burning ship sank with him alone on board.^ It is said that when the sad news was communicated to the old man, he wept more at the noble conduct of his brave lad than for sorrow at his loss. The last work which Thomson exhibited appeared in 1840, in the beginning of which year his health began to decline ; he gradually became worse, and when death was close at hand, had his bed removed near the window so that he might see the setting sun. He slept quietly away on the following morning, in the month of October 1840. Owing to his conscientious idea that his sacred charge should be his most important occupation, he never became a member of the Scottish Academy, although he was elected an honorary Academician. While the frequent appearance of a deputy preacher in the pulpit, when he was away on some sketching expedition or other, was mentioned in the Presbytery, he was never censured by that body, and never otherwise seems to have ^ Scottish Nation ; Hogg's Instructor. HUGH WILLIAM WILLIAMS. 299 neglected his ministerial duties, by which he ingratiated himself with his parishioners, and by whom he was highly esteemed. His influence on the future practice of his art in Scotland was very great, and probably such artists as Horatio M'Culloch and others owed more to his works than even they themselves were con- scious of.i Another artist who did much to advance art in Scotland was Hugh William Williams, born in Wales in 1773, and commonly known as Grecian Williams. He resided in Edinburgh for many years prior to his death in 1829, during which time he was inti- mately associated with art and artists in that city, and was almost exclusively a painter in water-colours. His oil-pictures are few, not very important, and, although broadly, are rather thinly painted, as might be expected from one whose practice had been almost exclusively confined to the more liquid branch of the art. The Shepherd, whom we find so enthusiastic in his praise of Thomson, has also given us his opinion of Williams : " It's im- possible to excel Williams — in his ain style — but he should leave the iles and keep to water-colours. In his water-colours, so saft and hazy — sae like the aerial scenery that shifts afore the half- closed een when a midsummer dream has thrown its glamour ower a body sinkin' down to slumber in noonday, within a fairy ring on the hillside — no' a man in Britain will get the heels o' Hugh Williams ; and as for the man himsel', I like to look on him, for he's gotten a gran' bald phrenological head, the face o' him's at ance good-natured and intelligent ; and o' a' the painters I ken, his mainners seems to be the maist the mainners o' a gentleman and a man o' the world — if he wad but gie up makin' auld puns, and be rather less o' the Whig and a wee mair o' the Tory." 2 He first came into prominence in Edinburgh, where he had 1 At the sale of Mr Clow's pictures in 1852, Thomson's Isle of Skye sold for ;^79, i6s. ; Tantallon Castle, at the Gibson-Craig sale in Edinburgh in 1887, brought ;^33, 12s. 2 Noctes Ambrosianae, 1827. 300 ART IN SCOTLAND. already been settled,^ as an exhibitor in 1810, and within the' two following years published six engravings from views in the Highlands. He afterwards travelled into Italy and Greece, returning about 18 18 or 18 19. His Views in Greece were issued in numbers between 1827 and 1829, and in 1820 he pubHshed an account of his travels, with some engravings from his own drawings, in two octavo volumes, published by Constable. After his return from his travels, he married Miss Miller of Garnock, a lady of fortune as well as of a good family, and mixed in the best society of Edinburgh. In the year 1822 he opened in Edin- burgh an exhibition of his water-colour drawings, the results of his tour in the East, the catalogue of which was illustrated by appropriate classical quotations, selected by Pillans and trans- lated mostly by John Brown Paterson. Regarding this exhibition, a critic of the time remarks : " There is room for more unqualified praise than in the works of any single artist in landscape-painting to which this country has yet given birth. The distinguished gentleman who has produced them has long been known, both here and in England, as one of the most beautiful landscape- painters which the island could boast ; and the imperfections in colouring which his residence in this northern climate occasioned, have now been removed by the enchanting glow and brilliant skies of Italy and Greece. To the charm of natural beauty he has added the magic of classical association ; and by selecting as the subjects of his pencil the most interesting scenes of Grecian history, he has brought before our eyes not merely the spots in nature where she appears in her loveliest forms, but those to which human greatness has attached the most delightful recollec- tions. . . . Where there is so much to admire, it is difficult to specify any piece which possesses peculiar excellence. The two, however, which appear to us to be most perfect, are the Views of the Temple of Minerva Sunium and of the Parthenon, taken from the pillars of Propylaea. In the first of these, the white marble columns of the temple are projected on a dark ^ There are obscure traces of him having been previously in Glasgow, HUGH WILLIAM WILLIAMS. 30I cloud, and driving rain is seen descending on the troubled sea in the distance : the only jfigures in the piece are two pirates emerg- ing from a glen in the foreground, and pointing to a bark which is landing its passengers at a Httle distance. The second represents the sun setting on the Temple of Minerva, and exhibits the appearance so well known to Grecian travellers, of the shadows of its pillars projected horizontally along the interior of the edifice. The great charm of this painting consists in the general effect which distinguishes it, arising from the breadth of shade which is thrown over the foreground, and the breadth of light which illumi- nates the distance. Here, as among his other paintings, the architectural edifices are represented with the most scrupulous accuracy ; nor do we know of any paintings by any master in which the truth of drawing, in that object, is so well united with the charm of almost ideal beauty." 1 Among his other pictures, the most important were, the Field of Plataea, the Acro- corinthus, View of Etna with the City of Taorminium, the Tombs of Plataea by Moonlight, and the Site of the Supposed Gardens of Alcinous in Corfu. He has been described, by one who knew him well,2 ^g being warm-hearted and honourable, of singular modesty and almost feminine gentleness. During his last illness, "the heroic and gentle cheerfulness with which he endured several months of pain and weakness, under a certainly fatal disease, was a striking example of the power of a gay spirit over the greatest bodily suffering." The same writer adds that he was " delighted with the splendid prospects of art which he saw open- ing to Scotland ; and he urged me to the very last never to relax till I had completed the reformation of the Academy which was then in progress, and which was effected shortly before his death." ^ He has executed one of the best modern views of Edinburgh, from the top of Arthur's Seat, which has been en- graved by the late William Millar with his usual excellence. He seems never to have exhibited in the London Academy, but was 1 Edinburgh Magazine, 1822. 2 Lord Cockburn. ^ Lord Cockburn's Memorials. 302 ART IN SCOTLAND. one of the original members of the Associated Artists in Water- Colour there in 1808. In the Scottish National Gallery, among other works, are his Temple of Minerva, rising white against a strong sky, with a foreground of waves dashing over some rocks ; a fine large View of Florence, in which the great dome near the centre rises against the distant range of grey hills ; the Town of Taormina, bathed in warm sunlight, with fragments of broken columns and dancing figures in the foreground ; and the massive ruins of Caerphilly Castle, in strongly contrasted light and shadow. His drawings are carefully pencilled in, and treated with broad washes of transparent colour, depending more upon contrasted masses of colour and general tone, rather than the broken tints of the present style of art — a change to a very large extent due to the displacement of the old hard-cake colours by the now popular moist form of pigments. Hugh W. Williams was called Grecian Williams in allusion to his Grecian pictures, and to distinguish him from John Francis Williams of Perthshire birth, who died in 1846. He went to England in his youth, where he practised for some time as a scene- painter, but returned to Scotland about 18 10, when he wrought in the Edinburgh Theatre. Being something of a character in his way, he was a favourite subject with the caricaturists of Auld Reekie. The late Sir Daniel Macnee, who was an inimitable story- teller and full of old reminiscences, was fond of giving imitations of his sayings and doings, but latterly dropped these out of his repertoire — they belonged to a past generation, and there were few remaining of his contemporaries who could remember his characteristics. He first exhibited in Edinburgh in 181 1, and was one of the foundation members of the Scottish Academy, for which he was treasurer for seven years. The name of " Williams, Edin- burgh," appears in the London Royal Academy Catalogue for 1800,1 as the painter of a View of Loch Tay; and in 1823, more definitely, J. F. Williams, Edinburgh, is put down as the exhibitor ^ Possibly H. W. Williams, who did some Highland scenery of much inferior execution and colour to those described, and very likely of an earlier date. ANDREW WILSON. 303 of the Cape on Red-Head in Angusshire, and a View near Gos- ford. He is represented in the Scottish National Gallery by a Storm Scene on the Ayrshire Coast. Another artist who somewhat resembled Grecian Williams in his classic taste was Andrew Wilson, born in Edinburgh in 1780, and connected with one of the many families residing there who had suffered from their Jacobite adherence. After some educa- tion in art under the elder Nasmyth, he was sent to London at the age of seventeen to study at the Royal Academy, and a few years afterwards went to Italy at some little personal risk, owing to the serious Continental troubles then existing. While pursuing his studies at Rome, he made the acquaintance of the wealthy picture -collector Mr Champernon, and Mr James Irving, who was an artist as well as a collector, a pursuit into which many were tempted owing to the disturbed state of affairs. Here he com- menced the study of ancient art, and afterwards brought home with him many sketches of architectural monuments, and similar subjects about Naples as well as Rome. Immediately on his return, perceiving the commercial advantage of also acquiring pictures, he set off again for Italy in 1803, and after considerable difficulty succeeded in reaching Genoa, where he obtained the protection of the American consul, in the character of an American citizen. He remained some three years in Genoa, where he was elected a member of the Ligurian Academy of Arts. He was also fortunate in the main object of his mission, as he succeeded in acquiring fifty-four pictures, among which were Rubens' Moses and the Brazen Serpent, purchased from Signor Lorenzo Marana for 17,500 livres, now in the National Gallery in London; and Titian's Adoration of the Magi, now in the Scottish National Gallery. It is related of him that while at Genoa, in his capacity as member of the Academy, among others, he attended Napoleon on his visit to their exhibition. While Bonaparte stood before one of Wilson's pictures, one of the artists near him volunteered the unnecessary information that it was the work of an Englishman ; upon which he received the sharp retort, " Le talent n'a pas de 304 ART IN SCOTLAND. pays." He returned with his pictures through Germany to London, where he practised water-colour painting, and after his marriage was appointed a professor of drawing in the Military College of Sandhurst. At the Royal Academy, as the result of his first visit to Italy, he exhibited the Temple at Tivoli ; a View of Valle Pietro in the Apennines ; and an Italian View. In 1812 he exhibited there no less than eight works, and five Italian subjects in the following year. He resigned his appointment at Sandhurst in 181 8, on receiving that of master of the Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh, where he did good service in the early training of artists who subsequently rose to eminence in their pro- fession, among whom were Robert Scott Lauder, D. O. Hill, and William Simson, besides extending the collection of casts com- menced there by John Graham. He remained in Edinburgh in this capacity for eight years, after which he removed with his family to Italy, and passed other eleven between Rome, Genoa, and Florence, engaged in painting, and in collecting pictures for mt Sir Robert Peel, the Earls of Pembroke, Hopetoun, and others, ^* sometimes acting thus in conjunction with Wilkie, who had a high estimation of his judgment. He sent at this time twenty-seven Vandykes to England, and had an important part in the selection of many of the pictures by the old masters belonging to the Royal Institution in the Scottish National Gallery. He died of paralysis during a visit to England, when on the eve of returning to join his family at Genoa, on the 27th November 1848. Andrew Wilson's most successful works were in water-colour, although he was also an excellent painter in oil. These are of great beauty and truth, and he possessed much taste in the delineation of classic and other architectural features, which usually form an important part of his pictures. He is perhaps best known by his Continental subjects, although he sometimes painted Scottish scenes. His architectural proclivities, while giving his drawing a certain style, sometimes led him into too free a use of horizontal and vertical forms, giving his work a slight feeling of artifice ; but his oil-pictures are often free of any trace of this — being broadly JOHN WILSON. 305 treated, full of atmosphere, unconventional, and in exquisite taste. His pencil-drawings are remarkable for their precision and deli- cacy, and he is favourably represented in the Scottish National Gallery. He was one of the original members of the Associated Artists in Water-Colour in London. His son, the late Charles Heath Wilson, was for some time connected with the Trustees' Academy as a teacher of ornament and design, and in conjunction with Dyce inaugurated the system of National Art Instruction now controlled by South Kensington. After some service in that department in London, he filled the office of head-master in the Glasgow School of Design, and on his retirement from that posi- tion, practised for some years as an architect, finally retiring to Florence, where he died. He was a clever sketcher in water- colour, somewhat after the manner of his father, and also possessed of some literary talent, his chief performance in that way being a Life of Michael Angelo. Some of his family are now following art in London. Another artist of the same surname, but no relation, John Wilson, familiarly known as " Old Jock " to distinguish him from his son, who was a landscape-painter, was born in Ayr in August 1774, and attained considerable distinction as a free and bold painter of marine subjects. At the age of fourteen he was appren- ticed to Norrie the decorator, and either during or after his apprenticeship had some lessons from Alexander Nasmyth, this being his entire art education beyond what he picked up in the shop.^ About 1796 he went to Montrose, where for nearly two years he taught drawing, after which he removed to London, and some fourteen years later got married to Miss Williams. He was employed as a scene-painter at Astley's, and began to exhibit successfully so early as 1807 at the Royal Academy, followed up in succeeding years by Scotch and English landscape subjects, such as the Falls of Clyde, Bothwell Castle, Lambeth Marsh, &c.,2 1 In Redgraves' Century of Painters, " the elder Mr Smith " is by an obvious error mentioned instead of the elder Nasmyth. 2 Redgraves' Century of Painters. U 306 ART IN SCOTLAND. and was also an exhibitor at the British Institution, of which he was one of the early and long-adhering members. He painted a Battle of Trafalgar in unsuccessful competition for the premiums fl offered by the British Institution, which was purchased by Lord Northwick. Although resident in London, he was a regular ex- hibitor at the Scottish Academy, of which he was an honorary member. He had a good reputation for the class of subject which he painted, this being almost exclusively confined to the sea and shipping, and his works are esteemed of some value.^ He was gifted with great conversational power, a retentive memory, and a keen observation. His son, John W. Wilson, excelled mostly in landscape and farmyard scenes with cattle, &c. Both died at Folkestone, the father in April 1855, and the son on the 30th January 1875, ^^ ^^^ ^S^ of fifty-seven. Two Scottish artists of some note link the two centuries, and the two countries separated nominally by the silver Tweed : these were the brothers Schetky. John Christian Schetky, the elder, was bom in 1778 in Edinburgh, and educated at the High School contemporaneous with Sir Walter Scott. He is said to have been one of Nasmyth's pupils, and was early in his life connected with scene-painting. In 1801 he left Edinburgh for the Continent — it is not mentioned how long he remained there, but it must have been for some considerable time, as he is stated to have walked all the way from Paris to Rome ; and after his return resided at Oxford, where he practised as an art-teacher. In 1808 he was appointed professor of drawing at the Royal Military College at Marlow, afterwards at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, and the East India College at Addiscombe, from which he retired in 1855.2 He made his cleduf at the Royal Academy in London in 1806, with three pictures (no address), one entitled a Sea-Piece, and each of the others a View. The following year he exhibited a drawing, and in 1821 five marine subjects, sent from the Royal 1 In the Biggs collection, 1868, Shipping and Boats off Dover brought 205 guineas. 2 Scottish National Gallery Catalogue, 1888. J. C. AND J. A. SCHETKY. 307 Naval College. He was an exhibitor pretty steadily after this, and in 1825 the names of both brothers were attached to the Brune taking the French Frigate Oiseau in 1768. Among his other works may be mentioned a large Battle of La Hogue, exhib- ited at the Westminster Hall competition of 1847 > the Rescue of a Spanish Man-of-war, in the United Service Club in London ; and the Sinking of the Royal George, in the National Gallery, — to which may be added a Sea-Piece, in the Scottish National Gallery, illus- trative of the disasters which occurred to a British fleet on its return from the Baltic in the seventeenth century. These works are of course in oil, in the practice of which his reputation may be said entirely to rest. He spent some little time with his brother in the Peninsular campaign in 18 13-14, and died in London in January 1874, exhibiting even after he had attained the venerable age of ninety years. As an author he is known by his * Veterans of the Sea ' and ' A Cruise on Scottish Waters,' and was designated Marine Painter to his Majesty and H.R.H. the Duke of Clarence, which appointment he held when the Duke ascended the throne, and was continued by our present Queen. It has been truly remarked that a gallery of John Schetky's works would contain some of the most stirring naval incidents which occurred during his long professional career. John's younger brother, John Alexander Schetky, who is mostly known by his water-colour drawings, was also a native of Edin- burgh, born in 1785, and educated for the medical profession, afterwards serving creditably as staff-surgeon in the Portuguese forces under Lord Beresford Hope. He had an early liking for art, and during his fatiguing service with the army, found time to do a httle sketching, one of the results of which was a Recollection of the Sierra da Estrella, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 182 1. About 1 8 14 he resumed the study of art in Edinburgh, which he had previously begun, probably with his brother, and afterwards executed some drawings illustrative of the scenery made classic by the writings of the Wizard of the North. Some three years after exhibiting the Sierra da Estrella at the Academy, he ex- 308 ART IN SCOTLAND. hibited several Portuguese scenes at the Water-Colour Society's exhibition in London. It is believed that he died in Portsmouth about the time when the picture above referred to by himself and his brother was sent in to the Academy's exhibition. Neither of these artists can be said to have directly influenced the advance- ment of their art in Scotland, as they were resident there for too short a time — it may be said regarding the elder brother, during none of his professional career. They were the sons of Christoif Schetky, a musician who came to Edinburgh in 1772, and played the violoncello in the Edinburgh Musical Society. Although not of Scottish birth, the erring John W. Ewbank cannot be omitted from the roll of Scottish artists, on account of his long residence in Edinburgh, his intimate association with Scottish art, and his early and close connection with the Academy in the very dawn of its existence. He was born in Gateshead in Newcastle in 1799, and having early lost his parents, was adopted in his infancy by a wealthy uncle living at Wycliffe, who put him to study at Ushaw College for the Roman Catholic ministry, from whence he absconded and apprenticed himself to a house-painter of the name of Coulson in Newcastle. Ewbank accompanied Coulson on the removal of the business to Edinburgh, where his master, recognising his talent, permitted him to receive some instruction from Alexander Nasmyth. He exhibited several pic- tures during his apprenticeship, at the close of which he em- barked on the troubled waters of art, setting out by teaching, and painting numerous small-sized pictures of coast and river scenes, besides doing drawings, such as views of Edinburgh, for Lizars the engraver. He was one of the original members, and took an enthusiastic part in the promotion of the Society of Artists' exhibitions, during the same time painting several pictures of more ambition than merit, such as the Entry of Alexander the Great into Babylon, the Visit of George IV. to Edinburgh, and Han- nibal crossing the Alps. His pictures consisted of sea-pieces and landscapes, of great simplicity, full of clear and very charming colour, the most successful of which were of a small size. The EWBANK — P. GIBSON — R. GIBB. 309 high qualities and attractive merits of his pictures readily secured numerous purchasers, and he painted so rapidly that in one year his income was said to have reached ;^25oo. His great success, however, was the cause of his ruin, and from the tenant of an elegant home in which he was surrounded by his family, in a very short time became the occupant of a cellar, painting, on a bare window-sill for want of an easel, pictures knocked off in an hour or two, which were often sold in his poor home or carried while wet to some place of common resort. He exhibited in London at the Royal Academy in 1832, Fishing Boats going out, and a Heath Scene. Six years later he forfeited his membership in the Scottish Academy, and so complete was his descent that his former fellow-artist Sir Daniel Macnee saw him reduced almost to a state of destitution in Newcastle. His death was occasioned by an attack of typhus fever, and he expired in the public in- firmary on the 28th November 1847. ^ Other two of the foundation members of the Royal Scottish Academy who carried on the branch of landscape-painting were Patrick Gibson and Robert Gibb. Gibson was born in 1782, studied for some time at the Trustees' Academy, receiving also, it is said, some instruction from Alexander Nasmyth, and was an exhibitor at the first Edinburgh exhibition, of landscapes in oil somewhat in the manner of Claude. He was of some literary capacity, and contributed an article to the ' Edinburgh Annual Register' of 1816, entitled " A View of the Arts of Design." In 181 7 appeared the advertisement — "Select Views of Edinburgh; consisting chiefly of prospects that have presented themselves, and public buildings that have been erected in the course of the recent improvements of the city, accompanied with historical and explanatory notices, etched by Patrick Gibson, 4to, £1, is." He died in 1830. Gibb, an excellent landscape-painter in his less ambitious efforts, was a native of Dundee, and died after a short career, in 1837. In the ' Noctes Ambrosianse ' he is thus referred to : " That young chiel Gibb hits aff a simple scene o' nature to ^ Art Journal and personal communications. 3IO ART IN SCOTLAND. the nines, — a bit dub o' water, aiblins — a footpath — a tree— ^ knowe — a coo — and a bairn ; yet oot o' sic slender materials the chiel contrives to gie a character to the place in a way that proves him tae hae the gift o' genius." i Notwithstanding this praise, however, his work is inclined to be rather hard and forced in effect — a little Dutch-like, but evidently looking intently at nature, and very inferior to the work of Ewbank in subtlety of art expression. Among other minor landscape-painters of the early part of the present century may be noticed John A. Gilfillan, who sometimes introduced figures into his pictures with much success. At one time a naval officer, he settled down to the profession of an artist in Glasgow, where he produced some excellent work, and had a hand in the advancement of art by teaching in the Andersonian University there about 1837, at the same time contributing to the local exhibitions. He latterly went to New Zealand to follow farming, but during a temporary absence from home, the natives made an inroad on his little homestead and massacred his family. Thence he went to Melbourne, where he obtained an appoint- ment in the Post-office. Robinson Crusoe's First Trip on the Raft, in the Glasgow Corporation Galleries, a good picture, is a favour- able specimen of his work. Regarding the art of water-colour painting, an artist little known beyond Glasgow who contributed in no small degree to the advancement of that branch in Scotland, was Andrew Donaldson. He was a native of Comber, near Belfast, from whence he was brought when very young to Glasgow, where his father found em- ployment in Houldsworth's mill in Hutchesontown. Young Andrew was also employed there for a few years, but owing to an accident which enfeebled his health he left the mill, and was for a short time employed in a haberdasher's shop, which he again left to pursue the profession of an artist. Like so many others, he was infected by the picturesque manner of the works of Prout, but very soon struck out into an independent style, and travelled ^ Blackwood's Magazine, 1827. W. ANDERSON — H. A. BARKER. 3II over a great part of Scotland, producing drawings which are still appreciated for their breadth and freedom. While practising as a teacher, he was a most prolific painter, and contributed no fewer than twelve works to the first exhibition of the Dilettanti Society in Glasgow in 1828. He died on the 21st of August 1846.1 William Anderson, bom in 1757, had some reputation in his day also as a water-colour painter, chiefly of marine subjects, and is representative of the transition of style in that art. He was originally a shipwright in Scotland, but went to London, where he was employed as a marine-draughtsman, practising his art at the same time with so much success that he became an exhibitor at the Royal Academy. His early pictures were executed in the old monochrome manner, washed with colour, but he latterly adopted the more modem style of the art. He occasionally attempted oil-painting, but with no great success, and died in 1837. His subjects were mostly river and coast scenes with boats and ship- ping : his name appears attached to two such works in the Newhall House list. Probably the earliest water-colour painter of Scottish birth was the celebrated architect Robert Adam (172 8- 1792), who has left some landscapes in the manner of the period : they are drawn in pen-and-ink, washed over with colour, and are said to be distinguished by a luxuriousness of effective light and shade. Henry Aston Barker has claims to be noticed among the land- scape-painters of Scottish birth, on account of the great excellence to which he carried the art of panoramic painting. He was born in Glasgow in 1774, and named Aston after his mother, the daughter of an Irish physician. His father Robert, who was of Irish birth, was a portrait and miniature painter practising in Edinburgh, where he also taught drawing, and where about the year 1786, aided by his son Henry, then a mere child, he painted a panorama of Edinburgh on the system of curvilinear perspective, which he invented, and applied to a concave surface, so as to appear level from a certain station-point. He took his invention ^ Art Journal and personal communications. 312 ART IN SCOTLAND. to London, where he patented it ; and notwithstanding the dis- couraging opinion expressed on seeing it by Sir Joshua Reynolds, he returned to Edinburgh to persevere in perfecting it, in which he was aided by pecuniary and other assistance from Lord Elcho. The result was a circular View of Edinburgh, 25 feet in diameter, successfully exhibited there and in Glasgow. He again left for ■ London with his son Henry, and exhibited it in 1789 at No. 28 Haymarket, after which Henry executed a panoramic view of the Thames with the Lord Mayor's procession, an etching of which he made and published in six folio sheets. This view was exhibited in 1792 in a rough back-building in Leicester Square, and was a marked success. In the following year he leased some ground in Leicester Place, on which he erected a large building for his exhibitions, and at the same time the father and son com- menced a panoramic view of the British Fleet off Spithead, shown to the public in 1794, after having been graced by a private visit from the king and queen and their family. In 1802, Henry's elder brother, Thomas Edward, who had also assisted in the work, entered into partnership with R. R. Reinagle, who was then one of the em- ployees, and erected a rival affair in the Strand, which, fourteen years afterwards, was bought up by Henry and Mr Burford, Rein- agle receiving a sum of money, and Thomas and his wife an annuity. Soon after settling in London, Henry attended the classes of the Royal Academy, and on his father's death in 1806 became sole executor, and provided for his mother and sisters agreeably to the conditions of his father's will. Prior to this Henry had travelled a great deal, making drawings for various panoramas in Turkey, Sicily, Denmark, and France. He met Lord Nelson at Palermo, and afterwards at Copenhagen. During the Peace of Amiens he was introduced to the First Consul as " Citoyen " Barker, an interview which was repeated at Elba after Napoleon's abdication. He was largely assisted by Burford, who did the drawings for the panoramas of the Spanish campaigns, and who also accompanied Henry to Venice, the panorama of which, exhibited in 1819, was their joint production. Three years DAVID ROBERTS. 313 later, his last panorama, representing the coronation procession of George IV., was exhibited. He was married in 1802 to Harriet Maria, the eldest of six daughters of Rear -Admiral Bligh, and left two sons — the Rev. Henry Barker, vicar of Weare, Somersetshire, and William Bligh Barker, who was brought up to the medical profession, but after- wards followed art — besides two daughters. He was an exceed- ingly hard worker, and emulated the celebrated Dr Hunter in early rising ; his manners were gentlemanly, and his conversation was always interesting. The panoramas which he exhibited were not only characterised by great artistic merit, but no pains were spared to make them accurate; and for this purpose he made special visits to the localities of the battles and other incidents represented, questioning and receiving verbal details from the officers who were present at the various engagements. It is re- lated of his picture of Malta, that it appeared so real that a New- foundland dog, deceived by the appearance of the water, leaped into the picture. His death occurred in London on the 26th February 1856.^ David Roberts, the eminent painter of architectural subjects, was by far the most important successor to Nasmyth, and the most distinguished in that branch of art which the Scottish school has produced. He was the son of a poor shoemaker at Stockbridge, in the northern suburbs of Edinburgh, born on the 24th October 1796, and sent to a "penny schule " in the neighbourhood, in which his education cost three or four pence a-week. He was transferred, at the age of eight, to another school, where the three R's were mercilessly hammered into him by the tawse or a cane, in the process of which his legs were sometimes almost flayed. His early love for art was indicated by an attempt to draw at home, from memory, the outside pictures which he had seen on a travelling menagerie, or " wild beast show " as it is called ; but no doubt the bias to his future taste was due to his mother, to whom he was devotedly attached, who was in the habit of relating to ^ Art Journal. 314 ART IN SCOTLAND. him the appearance and traditions of the monastic remains and venerable cathedral of her native St Andrews. When the period arrived at which he had to begin to earn a living, a lady having accidentally seen some of his drawings, sub- mitted them to John Graham of the Trustees' Academy, for that gentleman's opinion and advice. Being made aware of the cir- cumstances of the family, Graham wisely advised that he should be put to the house-painting business, and he was accordingly apprenticed to Gavin Beugo, who had at one time been a her- aldic painter. His indenture lasted for seven years, beginning at 2S. per week; and to long hours, little pay, and hard work, was added the fitful tyranny of an exacting master. Some little solacement, however, was afforded him in the workshop, by com- ing in contact with William Kidd, who was equally enthusiastic in art, and a senior workman named Mitchell, who is said to have largely assisted him with advice and instruction. The two latter had started a small life-class, which David joined, but their limited means prevented them from paying a model. They took their turn in sittings, which they sometimes varied by a donkey, and after- wards ventured on a kind of exhibition of their works, to which Roberts contributed a large picture of the Battle of Trafalgar. These humble though not unambitious exhibitions were con- tinued for three or four years, and at the termination of his apprenticeship Roberts went to Perth, where he was employed by a decorator named Conway, who had been brought from London to do some work at Scone Palace. In the following year he returned to Edinburgh, where he was engaged by a Mr Ban- nister, then opening a circus there, who was so pleased with his assistant that he engaged him to go to England at 25 s. a- week. The circus, which was to perform at the various places through which it passed, left Edinburgh in April 1816 ; but Roberts soon got so disgusted with his associates, that he left the caravan, and walked forward alone as far as Hawick. The company made a short stay at Carlisle, and also at Newcastle, where, in addition to his scenic employment, he took part in the performances, on DAVID ROBERTS. 315 one occasion playing with some relish the part of a barber in a pantomime. The company failed on arriving at York ; and hav- ing made a drawing of the fine old minster, he returned to Edin- burgh, after about a year's absence. He was next employed in the capacity of foreman-decorator at a mansion being erected at Abercairney, but left the employment of the Perth painter who was engaged to carry out the work, returning again to Edinburgh, chiefly at the desire of his parents. After some further service of the same kind under a more appreciative master, who, how- ever, found little of a higher class of work for him than grain- ing wood, he again took to scene-painting, and subsequently entered into an engagement with Mr Mason of the Glasgow Theatre Royal, receiving 30s. a-week. With the exception of one week's attendance at the Trustees' Academy, under Andrew Wilson — who sometimes took credit for a portion of his art in- struction — and with which he was dissatisfied, his art education was entirely confined to what he could pick up, or had been commu- nicated to him by his associates. On arriving in Glasgow, he was laid down by an attack of fever, and the doctor who had been called in, exacted all the money he possessed — some 30s. — in payment of his fee for attendance, in consequence of which a remittance had to be begged from his mother. The scenery in this theatre, already alluded to as painted by Nasmyth, excited his admiration to such an extent, that it had a very great influence in the formation of his future style of painting. Shortly after- wards he returned to Edinburgh; and in 1820, finding himself earning £^2 a-week, off which he had to pay a boy's wages, he got married. The theatrical company in Edinburgh with which he was now connected had to be wound up ; it was a travelling one : his salary was paid at irregular intervals, and he had to walk back all the way from Dumfries to Edinburgh. In 1822 he began to exhibit by contributing three pictures to the exhibition then held under the auspices of the Royal Institu- tion in Edinburgh : these consisted of the Foot of the Cowgate (a bit of Old Edinburgh), the Interior of Newby Abbey, and a 3l6 ART IN SCOTLAND. View of the Netherbow. He also contributed to the three suc- ceeding exhibitions, and off the profits of the sales of two or three pictures at 50s. each, and the savings from his wages of 37s. 6d. per week, contrived to furnish a little house. He also found time, after his working hours, to further add to his meagre income by doing some bits of scenery for Mr Alexander of the Glasgow Theatre. He went to London about 1822, where he was offered a situation by the eccentric EUiston of Drury Lane, through the good offices of a Mr Barrymore, and a few weeks afterwards re- turned to Edinburgh for the purpose of assisting his wife in the removal of their furniture. In London he again associated with Clarkson Stanfield, whose acquaintance he had made at the Glasgow Theatre Royal, and with whom he was admitted a member of the newly instituted Society of British Artists, to whose exhibitions he for some time contributed, but afterwards with a number of the leading artists withdrew from, partly on account of its unsatisfactory manage- ment. His scenery at Drury Lane and Covent Garden Theatres, painted in conjunction with Stanfield, has been spoken of in the very highest terms. During this time he first exhibited at the Royal Academy, in 1826, a View of Rouen Cathedral, followed next year by the Entrance to the Church of St Germains at Amiens, and the Shrine in 1830. These were painted from sketches made in the year 1824, during a brief journey to the north of France in company with John Wilson. His high abilities as a scene-painter now came to be recognised, and in Dublin he earned ;£"ioo by painting fourteen scenes in as many days. Along with Stanfield, he also about the same time executed a panorama for a Mr Laidlaw for Continental exhibition, and when he left off scene-painting finally, he was in receipt of ;£'io per week for six working days of six hours each. His patronage by Lord Northwick commenced by that noble- man's purchase of a picture in 1825, after which he soon began to see his way to fairly set himself off as an artist. He sent the Chapel of St Jacques at Dieppe to the first exhibition of the DAVID ROBERTS. 31/ Scottish Academy, and had a month's trip to Paris, after which he produced his fine picture of the IsraeHtes leaving Egypt (1829) : this he sent, against the advice of Lord Northwick, to the Suffolk Street Gallery, which he afterwards regretted. The following year he set off on a trip up the Rhine, but went no farther than Cologne, on account of the disturbed state of the country, arising from the French Revolution. In the same year his picture of the Israelites, which belonged to Lord Northwick, was exhibited in the Scottish Acad- emy, and he was elected president of the Suffolk Street Exhibition. His first extensive Continental travel was undertaken in 1832, when he visited and sketched in the principal old Moorish and other towns of Spain, remaining for some time at Seville on the advice of his friend Sir William Allan, and where he painted several pictures, notably the Interior of the Cathedral during Corpus Christi Day, and the Tower of the Giralda, both of which appeared in the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition. He returned to England in the following year, after which he painted, among other fine Spanish subjects, the Chapel of Ferdinand and Isabella at Granada, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1836, and purchased by the celebrated Mr Beckford. At this time he placed his name on the list of candidates for admission to the Academy ; and as, according to the regulations, no member of any other exhibiting art institution in London was eligible for election, he resigned his connection with the Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street, paying his fine of one hundred pounds, and a like sum for his share of the liabilities : his friend Stan- field had already ceased his Suffolk Street connection, being also dissatisfied with the management. He was elected Associate in 1838. Another result of his Spanish journey was four of the volumes of the 'Landscape Annuals,' besides a large folio volume — many of the illustrations in which were lithographed by his own hand. Among his other works of the same class may be mentioned the very charming illustrations to Bulwer Lytton's * Pilgrims of the Rhine,' executed in 1832, which were originally intended for one of the popular Annuals. The story 3l8 ART IN SCOTLAND. was written for the illustrations, instead of the usual method of j making the drawings to illustrate the text. In the year of his election as Associate of the Academy, he set out on his artistic tour in Egypt and the Holy Land, being away about eleven months. He bore with him letters of introduction from the Foreign Office to Colonel (afterwards General) Campbell, consul-general for Egypt at Cairo, by whom and other officials he was kindly received. He ascended the Nile in a boat pro- vided by the consul-general, accompanied by another in which was Colonel Nelley and Mr Vandenhorst, a West Indian friend of the latter, both of whom on reaching the second cataract became blind by ophthalmia, Roberts remaining unaffected. He returned to Cairo in December, where the news of his election into the Academy first reached him; and in February, accompanied by J. Pell and J. W. Kinnear, crossed the Desert by way of Suez and Petra, with a caravan of twenty-one camels, tents, &c. Mr Kin- near parted company at Gaza, and Robert arrived at Jerusalem at Easter, when the pilgrims were congregating to witness the descent of the holy fire, and to perform their ablutions in the Jordan. The drawings which he made on this tour were sub- mitted on his return to Alderman Moon, who arranged to repro- duce them as a work illustrative of Scripture history, and agreed to pay the artist ;^3ooo for the copyright and the superintendence of the lithographs, which were to be executed by Louis Haghe. On this work these two artists were occupied for nearly eight years — the result of which was, that the ' Holy Land and Egypt ' became one of the greatest achievements ever attempted in litho- graphy, and for which the publisher received many distinguishing honours from different monarchs, including a sacred order of merit from the Pope. Although the cost of its production is said to have amounted to ;^5 0,000, it yielded a good profit to the publishers. This enormous expenditure, however, was gradual — the work being published in parts, the first of which appeared in the spring of 1842. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1 84 1, after which he made other two visits to the Continent — DAVID ROBERTS. 319 first to the north of France, and afterwards to Belgium. In 1849 he completed his great picture of Jerusalem, exhibited in different towns in Scotland and England. Owing to the injuries it thus sustained, he sold it to a dealer for ;£"5oo, although he had previously refused double that sum. In this year he again visited Belgium in company with Louis and Charles Haghe, who also accompanied him in a tour to Scotland, and subsequently spent some time in Italy, to which he made a second visit as far as Rome with the Haghes. While in Scotland in 1858, he was presented by the Town Council of Edinburgh with the freedom of the city, and was entertained at dinner by the Royal Scottish Academy, under the presidency of Sir John Watson Gordon. He made his last Continental trip to Belgium in 1861, and after revisiting his native country, died suddenly in London on the 25th November 1864, and was buried in Norwood Cemetery. His wife had preceded him to her grave by several years, and their only child was married to Mr Henry Bicknell. His friend Mr James Ballantine, in a careful memoir, from which much of this notice is extracted, enumerates 279 pictures with their prices and other details. The largest sum he ever received for a picture was ;£'7oo for the Temple of the Sun, Baalbec (1861) ; and some of his works have tripled their original price since his death : seven which he painted for E. Bicknell for ;^io45, brought at the sale of that collection over ^^4300. A Spanish sketch, originally sold to Jennings of the Annuals for ;^2o, brought ;£43o, los., and another ^£262^ los. After his death Mrs Bicknell exhibited his remaining works, and having selected those which she wanted to retain, 11 00 lots were sold by Christie for over ;£" 16,000. Of 75 drawings on tinted paper made in Spain in 1833, which were exhibited in the German Gallery in Bond Street in i860, a large number were sold in that year by the same auctioneer for an average of about ;£"5o each. Within the last few years the commercial value of this class of his work has considerably diminished, having long been made a kind of speculation by dealers and auctioneers. I 320 ART IN SCOTLAND. In addition to the published works already mentioned, there is to be added his contributions to ' Scotland Dehneated,' published in 1847. Of the few composition pictures which he painted, the fl most important are the Departure of the Israelites from Egypt, engraved in mezzotint by Quiller; and the Destruction of Jeru- salem, splendidly lithographed by Louis Haghe, and which was the last work executed in lithography by that artist. His diploma picture at the Royal Academy is Baalbec. In the Academy of his native city he is represented by his large picture of Rome, presented by the artist in 1857, and for which a silver medal accompanied the thanks of the Academy. The picture is 14 feet in length, and represents a sunset from the convent of St Onofrio, the terrace and steps of which, with a group of pines and a garden, occupy the left-hand side of the foreground. It is if anything rather thinly painted in proportion to its size, and, like most of his other extensive views, wanting in atmospheric effect when compared with his interiors, very notably that of the rich old church of St Paul at Antwerp. His sketches, however, contain this quality of atmosphere in a very eminent degree ; and those engraved for the Annuals, and other such publications, rank only second to the similar works by Turner. In 1877, two pictures, the Nave of St Stephen's at Venice, and a Street in Antwerp, said to have been valued at ;^ii5o, the joint gift of Mr E. Bedford and Mr Bryan Doukin, co-executors of the late Mrs Bunnings, were presented to the Guildhall Library. It was stated at the time that they had been offered to the London National Gallery, and declined by the trustees as not being of sufficient excellence to represent the artist.^ Few artists have ever approached Roberts in his delineation of architectural subjects, more especially Gothic. In his very noble interiors of medieval cathedrals, invariably animated by well-dis- posed groups of figures, the quality of height and space is most successfully managed by the gradual losing of detail in line, form, and colour, as the columns ascend towards the ceiling or become ^ Art Journal. DAVID ROBERTS. 321 indefinite in the distance. In his wealth of resource, beauty of colour and finish, and breadth of efiect, he is unequalled ; while he had the rare power of sometimes making an unfortunate archi- tectural feature an efi"ective and appropriate part of the general pictorial efi*ect. The interior of the Dixmude Chapel, one of his last exhibited works, is a very noble example of one of the richest existing specimens of flamboyant architecture in Belgium. His art was recognised at the Paris International Exhibition of 1855, by the award of a gold medal and the favourable notices of the Parisian critics. He etched in a good manner a number of Scottish architectural subjects, of which he contemplated making a complete series, for the purpose of publishing, accompanied by historical and descrip- tive notes. His water-colour sketches are much sought after and highly valued. He generally executed them on tinted paper, and their careful pencilling are fine examples of incisiveness of line and precision of touch, admirably suited for reproduction by engraving.^ ^ The following are the prices brought by some of the principal pictures by David Roberts since the year 1850 : — 1850 1851 i8-;2 1853 1857 1858 1859 II II i860 II II 1861 Chapel in Church St Jean, Caen Exterior of Strasburg Cathedral Chapel in Church St Jean, Caen Interior St Jacques, Antwerp . Two Spanish Subjects, 18 x 13 . Alhambra (mentioned, very fine) Tower of St Rombald, Mechlin Ruins of Elgin Cathedral . Temple at Psestum . Rouen Cathedral, with Figures Island of Philas, Nubia The High Altar . . .. interior Westminster, with^j < Shrine of Edward the Con- K ( fessor j Interior St Jacques, Dieppe Interior of Duomo, Milan Interior of Roslin Chapel . El Heralda (? Giralda), Seville Chancel of Roslin Chapel At Pisa .... Great Square, Brescia Temple at Edfou Paestum (cabinet size) Mr G. Bacon's Collection . Gs. 270. Mr Hoare's Collection 86. Do. 200. Mr Rucker's Collection £3^7. Mr Clow's Collection 109. 4S Do. 127, IS Dow. -Duchess of Bedford . Gs. no. Sold at Foster's 117. Mr J. C. Grundy's Collection 250. Mr C. Morgan's Collection 350. Do. 420. Hon. E. Phipps' Collection 3SO. Lord Northwick's Collection 315. Do. 285. MrHouldsworth's Collection £^700. Do. Gs. 122. Mr H. Bradley's Collection 142. Wallis's Collection . 102. Do. 225. Flatou's Collection . 200. Do. 390. Agnew's Collection . 104. 322 ART IN SCOTLAND. 1861 1862 1863 1864 1866 1868 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 II 1875 11 II 1877 I! II 1880 / Library at Abbotsford (water- \ \ colour J Jerusalem Heidelberg .... Interior, Church S. Miguel The Ravine, Petra . . Tyre Sidon /Street Scene, Cairo (owner \ I paid;^5o) , ,r < /Chapel of Ferdinand and Isa-\ \ bella J /Melrose Abbey (owner paid\ \ ;C40) J Hall of Columns, Karnak /Interior, St Gomar ( owner \ t paid;^30o) j" /Ruins of Baalbec (owner paid\ I ^250) J Three Cabinet Water-colours . /Grand Square, Tetuan (water- \ \ colour) / /Seminario and Cathedral,! \ Santiago (water-colour) / Roman Forum .... {Golden Tower, and Entrance^ to a Spanish Town (small >- drawings) J Church of the Salute, Venice Piazza S. Marco Jerusalem .... Edinburgh from Calton Hill Rome .... /Miranda and Toledo (water- \ \ colours) J Tombs of the Scaligers . Barberini Gardens . Salamanca (water-colour) /Grand Square, Vittoria, \ \ (water-colour) / Escurial Palace (water-colour) Ruins of Koom Ombos Colleoni Monument, Venice Simoom (present from Artist) Melrose Abbey Rouen Cathedral (small) . /47 Eastern and Spanish \ \ Sketches (water-colours) / Piazza Navona, Rome At Verona St Jacques, Antwerp 10 Small Spanish book-sketches Oberwesel (water-colour) . Burgos (water-colour) Church of the Nativity Interior, Seville Cathedral Jerusalem, looking South . Melrose Abbey . View of Jerusalem . /Church St Pierre, Caen "I \ (water-colour) / Castle and Bridge of St Angelo Agnew's Collection . Flatou's Collection . Mr Langton's Collection . Bicknell Collection . Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Sold at Christie's Do. Sold at Foster's . Sold at Christie's Flatou's Collection Sold at Christie's Do. Mr Biggs' Collection . Do. Sold at Christie's Mr Clare's Collection Do. Do. Mr Bullock's Collection Do. Chas. Dickens' Collection . Sold at Christie's Mr J. Tyson's Collection . Mr J. Pender's Collection . Do. Sold at Christie's Mr Hargreave's Collection Sold at Sotheby's Mixed Collection Do. Mr S. Mendel's Collection Do. Mr Naylor's Collection Baron Grant's Collection . Do. Mr Knowles' Collection Mr Bicknell's Collection , ;^99. Gs. 200. 185. 570. 280. 350. 360. 505. 260. 260. 320. 1370. 750. 277. 410. 250. 305- 136. 340. 1000. 300. 145- 210. 225. 395- 525- 105. 170. I7S- 320. 390- 255. 235- 450. ;^I200. Gs. 603. 425- 1000. 200. 190. 240. ;^i4i7- 1890. 892. Gs. 152. 334- ;^3i5- DAVID ROBERTS. 323 1880 1881 1886 1887 Venice .... The Forum /St Peter's, Rome — Christmas- I day St Gomar, Lierre Temple of Koom Ombos . St Andrews Piazza San Marco Interior, St Stephen's, Vienna Caerlaverock Castle (50 x 22) Grand Canal, Venice (50 x 22) Mr Bicknell's Collection . Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. / Colonel Houldsworth's \ t Collection / Mr Toulmin's Collection . {Mr John Graham's Col-\ lection / .Do. 462. 399- 577- 346. 231. 1617. Gs. 280. 310. 530. 324 CHAPTER XV. Society of Incorporated Artists, 1808 — Early exhibitions in Edinburgh — Insti- tution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts — Royal Scottish Academy. In the beginning of the present century the enthusiastic coterie of artists, mostly emanating from the Trustees' Academy and the class of Alexander Nasmyth, felt themselves strong enough to venture on a pubHc exhibition of their works in 1808, under the title of the Society of Incorporated Artists.^ This was the first of the kind held in Scotland of any pretence, if we except the open- air one held in connection with the Academy of the brothers Foulis of Glasgow. Previous to this time several Scottish artists, as we have seen, had exhibited at the Academy in London, notably Gavin Hamilton, Ramsay, More, and Runciman. An attempt is mentioned as having been made in 1791 — Alexander Nasmyth renewed the effort three years later, and a third unsuc- cessful attempt was made in 1797 — to form an Academy with exhibitions in Edinburgh. Although not of any high degree of excellence compared with the later exhibitions of the Scottish Academy, that of 1808 did incalculable good in exciting the attention of the public, and also in affording the artists an oppor- tunity of showing their productions. There being at that time very little demand for anything in the way of pictures, except in the line of portraiture, that branch of the art was the most strongly represented, chiefly by the works of George Watson the president, miniatures by W. Douglas, and chalk and medallion heads by John Henning. Carse exhibited a Tent-Preaching, a Brawl in an ^ Sometimes "Society of Associated Artists." EARLY EDINBURGH EXHIBITIONS. 325 Alehouse, and the Chapman ; and W. Lizars, the Earl of Buchan crowning Master Gattie. In the line of landscape, the most im- portant works were by Alexander Nasmyth, consisting of Stirling Castle, Glenshira, and Windermere ; Inveraray Park, by Patrick Nasmyth ; and chalk drawings by Thomson of Duddingston. Some flower pictures by Syme were also favourably noticed. The following is a list of the artists contributing to this exhibition : — George Watson. J. Morrison. J. Watson. James Foulis. Alex. Galloway. N. Plimer. John Henning. Pat. Nasmyth. A. Carse. Alexander Nasmyth. P. Syme. W. H. Lizars. J. Woolford. William Douglas. Mich. Morrison. Wm. Findlater. James Howe. T. Brooks. Jas. Stevenson. Walter Weir. J. Thomson. J. Brooks. Peter Gibson. R. Morrison. John Beugo. John Moir. The second exhibition was opened on the 20th May 1809, and during the six weeks the pictures were on view, nearly 500 guineas were collected at the door. Forty-eight artists con- tributed works, and in point of excellence and variety this ex- hibition was greatly in advance of the previous year's. It was reviewed in the * Scots Magazine ' and the * Edinburgh Star,' and this gave rise to the publication of a half-crown pamphlet, ' Stric- tures on the Remarks,' written in the usual complaining style of overlooked artists. To this exhibition Raeburn, who had then achieved his reputation, contributed five portraits, including a full- length of Mr Harley Drummond on horseback, and a portrait of a gentleman (Mr Walter Scott) — "An admirable painting with most appropriate scenery." This was the well-known portrait of the Wizard of the North with his dog Maida. Among the other portraits favourably criticised were George Watson's portrait of an old Scotch Jacobite, and Geddes's portrait of Mrs Eckford. J. AVatson was represented by Lord Lindsay and Queen Mary ; W. Lizars, by Jacob blessing Joseph's Children ; Carse, by the Wooer's Visit (" A wonderful picture, somewhat in the manner of Wilkie, our Scots Teniers "), and a Country Fair ; A. Eraser, by a 326 ART IN SCOTLAND. 1 Green-Stall ; and Howe, by a Barber's Shop, — *' A very spirited picture, with much character and considerable humour," which praise, however, the critic qualifies by noticing an absence of ^M " polish and finishing, a matter of acquirement." ^ In landscape ^ the veteran Alexander Nasmyth was absent ; but Patrick showed a View in Westmoreland (concerning which a critic says, "We have been informed that this picture has been disposed of for thirty guineas ; in our opinion it is worth one hundred "). Thom- son of Duddingston was represented by a landscape, "most agreeably painted." The miniatures by W. Douglas, J. Steel, and S. Law- rence were also prominent, besides " several excellent drawings and medallion portraits, uncommonly well executed," by John Henning. This second exhibition was so far successful that a life-class was set on foot; other three followed, terminating in 1 8 13, up till which time the gross receipts amounted to ;£'2828, 15s. 6d., leaving a clear profit of ;£"i633, 8s. 6d.^ on the whole series of five. Concerning these exhibitions Lord Cockburn in his * Memorials ' states, that owing to the want of appreciation on the part of the public they were not a financial success, and that the artists soon found that the money charged for admission to their exhibitions could not be depended on to pay for their ex- penditure, when most unlooked-for aid released them of this difficulty. "A humble citizen," he adds, "called Core, who kept a stoneware shop in Nicolson Street, without communicating with any one, hastily built or hired — I rather think built — a place, afterwards called the Lyceum, behind the houses on the east side of Nicolson Street, and gave the use of it to the astonished artists." It was probably due to the generosity of this individual that the exhibitors were in possession of this sum of money; but unfortunately, the constitution of the Society had not been sufficiently binding to secure its permanency, and its success was the cause of its ruin. By a most unfortunate resolution passed by a majority of the artists, it was determined to divide the money among the members of the Society ; and thus, by the greed of a ^ Scots Magazine. ^ Sometimes put at £18$$. EARLY EDINBURGH EXHIBITIONS. 327 few selfish, and mostly unknown individuals, art in Scotland was thrown at least twenty years backward. After the meeting at which the resolution was carried, efforts were made to have it annulled, chiefly by the president George Watson, Alexander Nasmyth, J. Foulis, J. Beugo, Henry Raeburn, A. Galloway, and John Henning, but without effect. Had the efforts of these gentlemen been successful, the Society of Incorporated Artists might now have been one of the richest and most influential public bodies in Scotland, and the later contentions between the Royal Institution and the Scottish Academy would never have occurred. In the exhibition of 1808, 178 works were exhibited by the twenty-six artists named, thirteen of whom formed the Associated body; and in 1813, when the Association was dissolved under the presidency of Raeburn, elected the previous year, 209 works were exhibited by sixty-eight artists, only twenty-five of whom were members, who thus received about ^65 each. Three more annual exhibitions followed in Raeburn's rooms in York Place, after which they were discontinued, although several attempts were made to carry them on, chiefly by individual artists. The retarding influence exercised on the development of art in Scotland by the removal of the Court to London by James VI., had been repeated afterwards when the union of the two kingdoms was effected. From that time Edinburgh had ceased to be the headquarters of the Scottish nobility, who had all but entirely abandoned it as a place of residence. Scott mentions that he never knew above two or three of the peerage to have houses there at the same time, and that these were usually among the poorest and most insignificant of their class. The wealthier gentry had followed their example, very few of whom ever spent any con- siderable portion of the year in Edinburgh, ex6ept for the purpose of educating their children, or superintending the progress of a lawsuit ; and there were not likely more than a score or two of comatose and lethargic old Indians to make head against the established influences of academical and forensic celebrity.^ Thus, ^ Lockhart's Life of Scott. 328 ART IN SCOTLAND. whatever efforts were being made at the time of winding up the Society of Incorporated Artists in 1813, nothing tempted painters into any other line than that of portraiture. Young William Allan, after having gone to London to study, was roving through Russia while that country was in the throes of the French invasion. Wilkie had just burst into fame in London, where commissions from the nobihty were pouring in upon him. John Burnet had followed his old fellow-student, and when only twenty-five years of age, was teaching the English engravers the wisdom of re- verting to an earlier and better manner. Geddes, after four years' experience of Edinburgh, had returned to London and was then setting out for the Continent. David Roberts was struggling for bare life, either travelling with a caravan of strolling players, sometimes taking a part in the performances, or painting scenes for stationary theatres at twenty-five or thirty shillings a-week. Horatio MacCuUoch was just leaving school at the early age in which Scottish boys were put to work, and probably flattening his nose against the print-shop windows of Glasgow, with as unhopeful a future as could well be. Macnee, Duncan, Dyce, Harvey, and David Scott, all of whom were about the same age, and so eminent in their after-lives, were dividing their attention between arithmetical sums, school-slate drawings, and stories of Wallace and Bruce. Francis Grant, the future president of the Royal Academy, was in his classics, and John Phillip was not yet bom. Lord Cockburn has remarked that the eighteenth was the final Scottish century, and that most of what had gone before was turbulent and political, and all that has come after has been English.^ The manners and customs of the people were under- going a change, and an appreciation of art was beginning to manifest itself among the public. Pictures were more looked at ; architecture was claiming and receiving a large amount of attention j the appearance of streets and dwelling-houses was a matter of consideration ; and a good class of illustrated literature, in which local scenery formed a large portion, began to be issued from the ^ Memorials. ROYAL INSTITUTION OF THE FINE ARTS. 329 press. The author of 'Peter's Letters ' gives an interesting sketch of a curious Edinburgh character and his shop in the High Street, a year or two later, which throws some light on the position of art there. The shop was a clothier's, occupied by a father and son, both named David Bridges, and was one of the great morning lounges for old-fashioned cits, " where they conned over the Edin- burgh papers of the day or discussed the great question of burgh reform. The cause and centre of ^the attraction lodged in the person of the junior member of the firm, an active, intelligent, warm-hearted fellow, who had a prodigious love for the fine arts, and lived on familiar terms with the Edinburgh artists. The visitor curious in the matter of art would see nothing in the shop but the usual display of broadcloths and bombasines, silk stockings, and spotted handkerchiefs, but on being led down below into a kind of cellar, would find himself in a sanctum of art, crammed with casts from the antique, books on art, such as Canova's de- signs and Turner's Liber, and numerous specimens of the art of living painters, such as William Allan and other painters of that period." The Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland was formed on the ist of February 1819, under the auspices of twenty-four directors, headed by the Duke of Argyll, followed by the names of the Marquis of Queensberry, the Earls of Haddington, Elgin, Wemyss and March, Hopetoun, Fife, &c. The first exhibition of the "Institution was opened on the nth March 18 19, in Raeburn's gallery in York Place, and consisted of ninety-two pictures on loan, including works by Vandyke, Titian, Velasquez, Rubens, &c., with two or three British pictures by Richard Wilson, Reynolds, Alexander and John Runciman. With regard to this movement, the late Lord Cock- burn remarks that " it introduced itself to the public by the best exhibition of ancient pictures ever brought together in this country, all from the collections of its members and their friends. Begun under great names, it had one defect and one vice. It did little or nothing for art, except by such exhibitions, which could 330 ART IN SCOTLAND. not last long, as the supply of pictures was soon exhausted. Its vice was a rooted jealousy of our living artists as a body by the few who led the Institution. These persons were fond of art, but fonder of power, and tried indirectly to kill all living art and its professors that ventured to flourish except under their sunshine." The subscribers to this Institution contributed a fl single payment of ;£"5o, which constituted life-membership, and its management was exclusively confined to the subscribers, no artist being by its constitution allowed to serve on any committee, or to vote as one of the governors while he continued a profes- sional artist. A second exhibition followed in 1820, but it did not fulfil the anticipations of its promoters, and besides having drained most of the available collections, the receipts drawn barely covered the expenses. The dissatisfaction of the artists which existed at the commencement of the Institution now began to be openly expressed, and the directors made proposals that the artists should contribute to the next exhibition under their auspices, and that the free proceeds would be set aside for the benefit of the artists and their families — a plan which the artists at the time accepted as a feasible one, the more particularly as it h| got over the presidential difficulty with reference to the claims of Watson and Raeburn, which had stood in the way of the three last modern exhibitions.^ The exhibition of 1821 was thus con- stituted a modern one, and was opened on the 12th of March. Among the more prominent attractions were Raeburn's ^ portraits of Lord Hopetoun, and Lord KinnouU's gamekeeper; Geddes's portrait of Mr Oswald of Changue (a lover of literature and art, secretary to the Institution, and who died in April of the same year) ; a head of a boy with skins, by George Simpson ; an Ancient Procession and a Scene from * Don Quixote,' by a promis- ing young artist named Wright ; and sketches by Geikie. The strength of the exhibition, however, lay in the landscapes, prom- 1 W. B. Johnston, R.S.A., in North British Review, 1858. 2 It should here be mentioned, in justice to that eminent artist, that he was an ardent promoter of the artists' cause, prior to his death in 1823. ROYAL INSTITUTION OF THE FINE ARTS. 33 1 inent among which were A. Wilson's Evening in an Italian Har- bour ; Ruins of Warwick Castle, by Patrick Nasmyth ; the Pass of the Cows, by Alexander Nasmyth ; an Evening Landscape, by P. Gibson ; Sea-pieces, by John Wilson, then in London ; the Castle of Heidelberg, by J. F. Williams ; and Edinburgh Castle, by Clarkson Stanfield. In the department of sculpture, Chantrey was represented by busts of Lord Meadowbank and Mr Home of Paxton ; Josephs ^ and Scoular being also represented. A con- siderable number of the pictures in this exhibition found pur- chasers, and a critic of the time mentions, as indications of an increasing taste on the part of the public, the numerous attend- ance at the exhibition, and the number of pictures generally sold at that time in Edinburgh, stating that within the few previous years London dealers had sold in Edinburgh old pictures to the value of ;^5 000.2 The directors at this time made known their intention, if funds would ever permit, to build a suite of three rooms for exhibition purposes, one of which would be devoted to the works of ancient masters, and the other two appropriated to modern pictures and sculpture. Within the following year (1822), an exhibition of beautiful and interesting drawings in water-colours of Grecian scenery, by Hugh W. Williams, was open in Edinburgh. It was highly appreciated, and, in consequence, well attended ; the catalogue was illustrated by quotations 0*om the classical authors appropriate to the sub- ject of each picture. The Institution's exhibitions thus constituted were continued annually up till 1829, and in addition to those already mentioned, the catalogues for the various years contain the names, among 1 An English sculptor settled for some years in Edinburgh. 2 Scots Magazine, 1821. In Blackwood's Magazine, 1827, is the following : " In Edinburgh this winter there have been several collections of pictures exhibited for sale. Most of them are execrable. In a collection, however, in St Andrew Square, belonging to a Mr Hickman, there is a fine Rubens and a Titian ; also several other pictures of merit. In the Calton Convening Rooms there is a very fine collection of Italian pictures, advertised for sale as the property of a private gentleman. Besides these, in every part of the town your eye is arrested by placards advertising sales and exhibitions of pictures. One 332 ART IN SCOTLAND. Others, of Wilkie, Thomson of Duddingston, John and George Watson, Ewbank, Copley Fielding, Fraser (the elder), Howard, and Turner. The discontent, however, on the part of the artists, instead of diminishing, had gone on increasing, in consequence of the high-handed conduct on the part of the directors still ignor- ing the artists in the management, and culminated in 1826, when a movement was set on foot for the commencement of a separate Scottish Academy. It was probably in anticipation of such a movement that the Institution catalogue of that year sets forth the objects of its promoters at considerable length, and which may be worth extracting. " These objects embrace whatever may at any time appear calculated to promote the improvement of the fine arts, by exciting a more lively interest in their successful progress, by providing the means from which a more general diffusion of taste in matters of art may be expected to result, and by tending thus to increase the honour and the emoluments of our profes- sional artists. The Institution being formed, not as a society of artists, but for their benefit, and for the encouragement of art generally, it is proposed to have periodical public exhibitions for the sale of the productions of British artists; to purchase the works of modern artists, which, it is hoped, may of themselves eventually form a most interesting exhibition ; to excite emula- tion and industry among the younger artists, by offering premiums for their competition, and, by facilitating their exertions, putting it in their power to visit London or other places, affording parti- cular means of improvement ; to obtain, from time to time, for the study of the artists and the gratification of the public, exhibitions of some of the best works of the old masters that can be pro- cured ; to establish a library of engravings and books on art — an object which has already in part been attained, and which is recommended to the Institution both by the unquestionable I remarked which professed to have the united collections of an ex-king, a Ger- man baron, and a Dutch burgomaster ; among them, it was asserted, were seve- ral fine specimens of Correggio ! These Correggios sold for various sums, from £3 to ;^io. I believe at this moment there are more bad pictures in Athens [Edinburgh], for its size, than in any other town in the known world." ROYAL INSTITUTION OF THE FINE ARTS. 333 Utility of such a collection, and by its being one of too expensive a description to fall easily within the reach of purchase by private individuals ; and finally, to serve the means of affording relief to artists suffering under unavoidable reverse of circumstances, or to their families when deprived by their death of the benefit of their talent and exertions, and for which object also some provision has already been made." About the time at which this long-winded explanation appeared in the catalogue, the Institution was aided by a further notice in the ' Scots Magazine,' the evident intention of which was to bias the public against the movement being set on foot for the starting of the Scottish Academy. The article tried to prove that the Institu- tion was established on a basis superior to that of the Continental academies. Referring to the latter the writer says : " The students who attend these are maintained at the public expense till their education be completed, and their skill and reputation such as are adequate to their support. This is not the way to breed either original or liberal-minded artists, or to elevate the profession in their own estimation or that of the public. But it is the way to breed an esprit de corps and a peculiar style of art. The Royal Institution is not founded on such a plan ; it is not an association of artists ; it is an endowment merely of the means of improve- ment, of which the artists may avail themselves if they incline. It is an emporium, in short, for the exhibition and sale of their own works, and for the collection of masterpieces for the improve- ment of their taste." The Institution which thus made known its objects consisted then (1826) of a hundred and thirty -one ordinary members, thirteen honorary members, five of whom were artists, besides twelve artists denominated Associate members.^ The exhibition of that year was held in the building known as the Royal Institution, which had recently been erected at a cost of forty-five thousand pounds, defrayed from the surplus granted at the Union. This ^ In 1830, the numbers were one hundred and thirty-four ; and in 1845, eighty-nine. 334 ART IN SCOTLAND. grant, as already said, was placed in the hands of a body of trustees in order to develop the industries of Scotland, the leading members of which body were identical with those of the Institution. Accommodation was provided for the School of Design which the trustees had commenced in the Edinburgh College, and also for the Royal Society and the annual exhibitions, both of which paid a rent — the last-mentioned, ;£sSo. The movement for the commencement of the Scottish Academy was begun by the circulation of a document by William Nicholson the portrait-painter, for signature among the artists; and a meeting was held on the 27th of May 1826, Patrick Syme being in the chair, when a scheme was proposed, and the Academy constituted by twenty-four artists : these were divided into thirteen Acade- micians, nine Associates, and two Associate engravers. Of these, however, nine resigned when they realised the responsibility which they had incurred in joining the new body, and in consequence another meeting was held on the 26th of the following December, when the remaining fifteen courageously determined to risk an exhibition in February. " The minutes of this meeting in the records of the Academy are gratifying to peruse : no sign of H quailing is shown by those present, but, on the contrary, there is the expression of a quiet but resolute determination to persevere as if all things were going on well. This manly spirit was due very much to the firmness of purpose shown by Mr William Nicholson and Mr Thomas Hamilton, who were the real founders and promoters of the Academy." ^ A council of four was now elected, consisting of Thomas Hamilton, treasurer; William Nicholson, secretary ; James Stevenson ; and Patrick Syme. For the three months required for the exhibition, two large galleries, one somewhat smaller than the other, were engaged in Waterloo Place for eighty guineas, but afterwards rented at ;£"i3o per annum. After great efforts, not only to contribute themselves, but also to obtain pictures from other artists in London and elsewhere, the first exhibition of the Scottish Academy was ^ Sir George Harvey. ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY. 335 opened concurrently with that of the Institution, on the ist of February 1827, to which latter the majority, and, it may safely be said, the best of the artists, still adhered, among whom were William Allan, Alexander Nasmyth, Watson Gordon, and Grecian Williams. In the preface to the catalogue it is stated that "it may no doubt be said that an Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland already exists in Edinburgh ; but while the intentions of its promoters are entitled to every praise, it can only be regarded in the light of an auxiliary, and ought not to supersede or repress the combined efforts of the artists themselves. The Royal Institution, from its very nature, never can supply the place of an Academy composed of professional artists, and entirely under their own management and control. By confining itself, however, to its original and legitimate objects, it may undoubtedly render very essential services to the fine arts, whilst it may still leave an ample field beyond the sphere of its operations which professional men alone can occupy with advantage. . . . The members declare they are actuated by no feeling of hostility to any existing institution, and consider that the objects in view in which their own interests are so deeply concerned, will be best attained by their own exertions." The following notice also appears on the cover of the catalogue : — " I. Each Academician shall give on his appointment 25 guineas to the funds of the Academy, and each Associate 10 guineas. On an Associate being elected an Academician, he shall give 15 guineas more to the same fund. "II. Each subscriber of 25 guineas or upwards to be called an Honorary Member, and to have free admission to all exhibitions, and three friends, for life. Also access to the library, collection of casts, &c., at certain periods to be afterwards specified. "III. A subscriber of 10 guineas will be entitled to free admission for himself and one friend to the annual exhibitions of the Academy for life. " IV. A subscriber of 5 guineas will be entitled to free admission to the annual exhibition for life." The first exhibition contained 282 works, contributed by 67 336 ART IN SCOTLAND. artists. As great efforts had been made, some of the artists, numerically at least, were well represented. J. B. Kidd showed 15 works; W. Nicholson, 26; Ewbank and W. S. Watson,™ 13 each; D. Mackenzie, 12; J. Syme, 11; T. M. Richardson, Newcastle, 9 ; J. Stevenson, 8 ; George Harvey, Patrick Syme, and Miss Patrickson, 7 each ; the president G. Watson, Patrick Gibson (Dollar), A. Carse, and W. Shiels, 6 each; J. Stewart (Rome), Geikie, and W. H. Lizars, 5 each ; and J. Graham sent one from Glasgow. The total amount of the pictures sold reached the modest sum of ;£^5o6. Some little animus was now shown on the part of the Insti- tution, and in order to strengthen its influence, the directors personally gave commissions for pictures to those artists who were still its adherents. In point of quality, as was to be ex- pected, the exhibition of the Institution had the best of it ; but the new society of artists, finding the profits of their first exhibi- tion amounting to ;^3i7, 13s. ii^d., determined to persevere, and the following year found them more equally matched, the succeeding exhibition of 1829 fairly driving the Institution off the field with William Etty's great picture of Judith and Holo- fernes (which the Academy purchased), contributions from John Linnell, John Martin, Sir Francis Grant, and the great picture of Rubens' Adoration of the Shepherds, lent by Lord Hopetoun, and hung during the exhibition. This picture being too large for admission by the door, had to be swung through the cupola space — the cupola having been removed for the purpose. The exhibition rooms in Waterloo Place were crowded, while those in the Institution were so empty that a visitor one day surprised the officials in charge utilising the vacant floor for a game at pitching pennies.^ The artists who still adhered to the Institution, after for some time maintaining the idea of forming with some others another association, made a proposal through Henry (afterwards Lord) Cockburn that they should be received into the member- ship of the Scottish Academy on the rank of Academicians, sub- 1 Communicated by Mr John Mossman, H.R.S.A. ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY. 337 mitting to the already constituted rules — William Allan, R. Scott Lauder, and W. J. Thomson being willing, however, to rank only as Associates. On receiving this proposal the Academy, fearing that their constitution might be overturned by so many full members entering at once, and being at the same time unwilling to shut the door in the faces of their fellow-artists, consulted Mr Hope, the Solicitor-General, on their part. And these two lawyers, after some consulting and negotiating, " married them in a week." The new members were now admitted, and the per- manence of the rules and constitution was ensured by an able and ingenious arrangement, which was unanimously approved on the loth July 1829; Mr Lizars, the engraver, resigning at this time, in consequence of a rule which was afterwards abolished, by which engravers were limited to the rank of Associates. The directors of the Institution being unwilling to abandon the field altogether, now proposed to the Academy that its members should contribute to their exhibition in the following February — a proposal which, of course, was rejected; the members of the Academy, however, expressing their willingness to do so to one for the sale of works by living artists during the summer months. An exhibition of this nature was accordingly opened by the Insti- tution on the I St May 1830, but was not successful; on which the Institution as an exhibiting body sank into obscurity, after having by its tyranny produced the Scottish Academy. Under the new arrangement the first general meeting of the Academy was held on the nth of November 1829, at which the office-bearers required to be elected. The arbiters had recom- mended that the existing office-bearers should retain office for some time, on account of the great number of acceders recently admitted, so as to weld together the new and the old elements of the Association; but the ballot substituted the name of John Watson Gordon as treasurer for that of Thomas Hamilton. This was at the time thought rather ungraceful, Mr Gordon being one of the newly admitted members, while Mr Hamilton had from the very commencement of the movement been one of the most Y 338 ART IN SCOTLAND. energetic promoters of the Academy. In the following year Nicholson resigned his office as secretary, on account of the great amount of time required for his now considerably augmented duties. Mr D. O. Hill being elected in his stead, filled that office till his death, which occurred nearly forty years later. The important picture of Judith and Holofernes, already men- tioned as having been purchased from Etty in 1829, was paid for before the close of the exhibition, and an arrangement was further made with the same artist to paint two side-pieces for that picture. The series being completed on very liberal terms on the part of Etty, the members of the Academy resolved to exhibit them in December 1830, along with their own diploma pictures, and others borrowed from Etty. In accordance with their request, he sent his Benaiah, and the Combat — borrowed from the owner, John Martin the artist — besides three small pictures, consisting of a Venetian Window during Carnival, Nymph fishing, and the Storm. The idea of acquiring for the Scottish National Gallery the three first-mentioned large and important pictures was suggested by Hamilton, Macleay, and George Harvey. Hamilton having written privately to Etty, found that the Benaiah could be had for 130 guineas, and that Martin would part with the Combat for ^£'400. The Academy decided upon the purchase, not without opposition on the part of some dissentients, including the treasurer, who resigned in consequence.^ Even as a commercial transaction, however, the wisdom of the purchase was soon apparent, the sum of ;^2 5oo having been offered some years afterwards for the Combat alone. ^ Such was the low appreciation of Etty's work in England at that time, that although so modestly priced, the ^ Mr Watson Gordon afterwards withdrew his resignation as a member, but was not reappointed treasurer. 2 The following extract from David Scott's Memoirs, referring to the meeting at which the purchase was resolved upon, is interesting : ^^ Feb. 1832. — Allan, our respected chairman, sits one hand over the other, as if he were thinking of his lost finger. Hamilton, whom I like as a man to carry a thing out, half rising, explains the transaction : he has bulk enough to give him weight. Harvey sits still, with his sharp though small eye, observant enough ; and Macleay, with good moustaches and proper boots, stretches his legs straight ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY. 339 Combat passed unsold through the Royal Academy's exhibition, his friend John Martin purchasing it at the last hour for ;^3oo. The exhibitions of the Institution, which, as already said, ceased in 1829, had been held in the main gallery of their building, and the members of the Academy continued their exhibition in the Waterloo Place Rooms till the expiry of their lease in 1834. During this time the Board of Trustees acquired and placed in the Institution rooms the greater part of their collection of pictures, towards the formation of the National Gallery. The attendance of the public was small, and during the time of their exhibition the valuable suite of rooms was almost entirely vacant during the other nine months of the year, the gloom being only broken in upon for a short time by the exhibition of the skeleton of the great northern whale, notwithstanding their advertisement : " To be let, for exhibition of pictures, or other articles connected with the fine arts, the above elegant apartments." ^ On the expiry of the lease of the Waterloo Rooms, advances were made in 1835 by the Insti- tution towards the Academy, which resulted in the exhibitions of the latter being transferred to the Institution's building, for which a rent of ;^ioo was paid, and a further like sum for the use of the Board room, which was felt to be rather severe upon the Academy, the members having thus even to pay for permission to see the pictures by Etty, which they had bought and deposited there, the Institution at the same time receiving a grant from Government of ;^5oo per annum.^ The exhibitions of 1836-37 were Hmited to the north octagon and central gallery; in 1838 the Trustees offered in addition the south octagon for the ensuing exhibition, and subsequently on application the south-west room was also added.^ out, one foot over the other, and his cane at his mouth. Ewbank swings on his chair ; and Steell leans his head on his hand. There is also J. F., as they call Williams, with his paralytic, important shake of the head j and Hill's broad sensible face." ^ Sheriff Monro's Scottish Art and National Encouragement, also Appendix to same, 1846. 2 Harvey's History of R.S.A. ^ Scottish Art and National Encouragement, 1846. 340 '^^■~ ART IN SCOTLAND. Things seem now to have gone on tolerably smoothly with the Academy for a few years. In 1837 it lost its first president by the death of George Watson ; William Allan being elected his successor, and receiving the honour of knighthood when he succeeded Wilkie as Queen's Limner for Scotland, in 1842. Immediately after the institution of the Academy, and within its first year, an application was made to the Home Secretary, Mr Peel, for a charter of incorporation, which was refused, al- though warmly supported by Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A. ; the Academy meanwhile having the mortification of seeing that dis- tinction soon after bestowed on the Institution. Application was again made, and after much trouble on the part of its office- bearers and friends, it received its charter on the 13th of August 1838, as the " Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture," — " thenceforth to consist of artists by profession, of fair moral character, high reputation in their several professions, settled and resident in Scotland at the dates of their respective elections, and not to be members of any other society of artists in Edinburgh." The charter ordains that there shall be an annual exhibition of paintings, sculpture, and designs, in which all artists of distinguished merit may be permitted to exhibit their works, to continue open for six weeks or longer. It likewise ordains that, so soon as the funds of the Academy will permit, there shall be in the Academy professors of painting, sculpture, architecture, perspective, and anatomy, elected according to laws to be framed in accordance with those of the Royal Academy in London ; and that there shall be schools to provide the means of studying the human form, with respect both to anatomical know- ledge and taste of designs, which shall consist of two departments, the one appropriated to the study of the remains of ancient sculp- ture, and the other to that of living models.^ For the school of art thus contemplated in the Academy's deed of constitution, it was also provided for thus : that the use of an apartment for these purposes shall be afforded either by the Board ef Trustees or the * Lefevre's Report. I ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY. 34 1 Institution, at such seasons as may not interfere with the annual exhibitions of manufactures or meetings of the Board ; and in ad- dition, access to the collection of casts belonging to the Board is to be afforded, to enable the Academy to conduct its proposed school of the antique. Thus, the class for drawing for manufac- tures which the Board had long possessed, was now to be supple- mented by others for the higher branches of art, conducted under the auspices of the great body of Scottish artists, and the super- vision of the Board. Obstructions, however, were again thrown in the way. A wretched little room in the basement storey was pointed out to the Academy for the life-school, which, after trial, had to be abandoned as unfit for the purpose ; while at the same time the south octagon, as well as the west room, well fitted for the purpose, remained useless and unoccupied nearly all the year round. In one of these apartments the Academy's pic- tures had been placed according to agreement, but after a few months, were taken down that the room might be painted, and not put up again there,^ but placed among the pictures of the Institution in the north octagon, a fee being charged for admission to see them. The Academy was thus compelled to rent two rooms in Register Street for the continuance of their life-school, the expenses of which, together with their purchases for the National Gallery, library, &c., were defrayed from the proceeds of the exhibitions. The struggles of the Academy were not yet over, and the feel- ing so long existing between the Board of Trustees and the Royal Institution on the one part, and the Academy on the other, reached an extreme point of virulence in 1846, when the latter body received intimation that only two of the four rooms previ- ously occupied would in future be placed at their disposal for their exhibitions. The Academy endeavoured to show that even the four rooms were inadequate, sculpture being almost quite ex- cluded, and declined to accept the limited accommodation offered for the future. As already stated, the gentlemen constituting the ^ Scottish Art and National Encouragement, 1846. 342 ART IN SCOTLAND. Board of Trustees and the Institution were almost identical— so intimately mixed, indeed, that Sir George Harvey mentions that one gentleman who generally took the lead, was heard to assert with emphasis, that he was the Board of Trustees and the Royal Institution also. The Academy had thus to contend with one antagonist under two names, with separate and yet united powers. As the members of these two bodies were mostly men of high social standing and unimpeachable character, it can only be be- lieved that they took little personal interest in the affairs of the Board and the Institution ; and consequently, whatever blame they may have incurred, was due to the petty annoyances caused by the executive and their own carelessness. The source of these annoyances has been largely attributed to the change of position of a picture from a fair to a worse place on the wall of one of the exhibitions, during the hanging and before it was opened. The picture was by a son of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, the secre- tary of the Board, who made it the subject of an official corre- spondence (19th Feb. 1844), expressing himself in his first letter so bitterly as to characterise the council as a body which allowed its judgment "to be swayed and overturned by every unworthy intrigue that may be originated by selfish individuals in the body which it ought to govern." ^ Among other hard things said, the Board described the Academy council as " a series of individuals changed every year, and of whose habits, and even names, they are ignorant ; " while alluding at the same time to the Royal Society, the Society of Antiquaries, and the Royal Institution as consisting of persons of the highest consideration.^ The series of obscure individuals, consisting of Sir William Allan, R.A., John Watson Gordon, Thomas Hamilton the architect, &c., vindicated their action. The picture was admitted to have been placed at first in the position from which it was moved, but one of the mem- bers pointing out that it hurt the colour and appearance of the wall (while ignorant of the artist's name), it was moved to another place on the responsibility of the hanging committee and council. * Sheriff Monro's Scottish Art, Appendix, p. 8. ^ Ibid., p. 9. ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY. 343 The result of this action on the part of the Board was a vigor- ous movement in 1847 towards the erection of a suite of rooms suitable for all the purposes of the Academy and the National Gallery; and after many appHcations to the Treasury for State aid towards this object, a commission was sent from the Treasury to report, the city having in the meanwhile granted a site at the almost nominal sum of ;^iooo. In the spring of 1850, John Watson Gordon was knighted, and elected president on the death of Sir William Allan ; and in August of the same year a vote was moved in the House of Commons for the buildings, but negatived, chiefly by the opposition of Hume and Bright. Explanations, however, having been given privately to these gentlemen, the vote was agam brought up and passed, for ;£'3o,ooo, in addition to ^^'20,000 from the Board of Manufactures, for "a distinct edifice properly adapted for their objects and functions, and appropriated to their own use, upon conditions analogous to those under which the Royal Academy in London have the advantages of their present galleries." ^ Designs for the proposed edifice having in the meantime been prepared by William Playfair, the foundation- stone was laid by Prince Albert on the 30th of August 1850, and the buildings were completed in 1855, in which year the Academy held its first exhibition there. The general custody and maintenance of the buildings are vested in the Board of Manufactures, the Royal Scottish Academy having the entire charge of the council-room and library, and of the exhibition galleries while open to the public. The troubles of the Academy were now fairly over, and it henceforth entered upon a deservedly successful career, as, besides having obtained a per- manent local habitation, its funds were further augmented by the saving of the rent previously paid to the Royal Institution, which had latterly increased to ;^7oo.2 It had thus obtained what Lord Cockburn, one of its ardent promoters, had long before set his mind upon, when in 1838 he wrote, "I want ;£"3oo a-year, a charter, and under the Queen's patronage the title of the Royal 1 Lefevre's Report. 2 Art Journal, 1855. 344 ART IN SCOTLAND. Academy. I have nearly succeeded twice, and I don't despair. Why should we, who have done more than London relatively, and more than Dublin absolutely, not get what they have?" The artists in the latter city, it may be added, had to pass through pretty much the same ordeal. This first exhibition in its permanent premises, being its twenty- ninth, closed on the 2d of June, having been a month later than usual in opening in consequence of the galleries not being ready in time. It was undoubtedly the finest which Edinburgh had wit- nessed, containing important works by Stanfield, Linnell, Land- seer, Cooke, Poole, and Millais, representing the English artists ; while native art was worthily represented by Harvey, MacCulloch, Bough, Noel Paton, the Faeds, the Lauders, Gordon, &c., in painting — and in sculpture by Marshall, Brodie, Ritchie, and others. About 1300 season tickets were purchased, and nearly 27,000 persons paid at the door during the time in which it was open in the evenings ; while nearly 3000 season tickets were sold, and over 25,000 people paid at the door for the day exhibition, — making a total of 52,000 paying at the door, and nearly 4300 season-ticket holders. Sir John Watson Gordon, its third president, dying in 1864, was succeeded by Sir George Harvey. Sir Daniel Macnee followed in 1876; on the death of whom six years after, the present accom- plished Sir William Fettes Douglas was elected to the honourable position. In July of the year 1825, Mr Peter Spalding of Heriot Row, who had been superintendent of the Mint at Calcutta, executed a will in which he left his fortune to the directors of the Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland, for creating a fund, the interest or annual proceeds whereof, to be applied for ever for the support of decayed and superannuated artists belong- ing to the Institution. The testator died on the i6th October 1826, when the value of the bequest amounted to about ;£'io,ogo. The interest of the bequest continues to be administered by the Academy in accordance with the intentions of the donor, the ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY. 345 annuities given usually amounting to about ^^30 each.^ Fur- ther bequests have since been made, among which may be men- tioned that of Mr Alexander Keith of Dunottar, who left a legacy in 1852 of ;^iooo for the purpose of promoting the interests of science and art in Scotland. The trustees appointed (Sir David Brewster and Dr Keith), from this sum appropriated ;£"6oo to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and ^^400 to the Royal Scottish Academy — the interest to be given for " the most important dis- coveries or inventions connected with these Societies." This small bequest, has been utilised in the form of prizes awarded to students in the life-class of the Academy; the "Stuart" prize, another bequest, being devoted to the same purpose. Besides these, the sum of ;^iooo, bequeathed by the mother of the late George Paul Chalmers,^ is applied by the Academy in the form of a bursary. In addition to the many valuable pictures, &c., lent to the pub- lic in the National Gallery, the Academy possesses a fine and numerous collection of drawings by the old masters, bequeathed by the late Dr David Laing ; drawings of various kinds ; life studies by Etty ; besides other works of varied interest, and the prize studies by students of the life-school from 1873 onwards. The value of all its art property is estimated at over ;;^4o,ooo. It also possesses a valuable collection of books, forming a good art library. The following are extracts from its present constitu- tion and laws ;^ — Section I. "I. The members shall form three Orders or Ranks. "2. The first Order shall consist of thirty members, who shall be called Academicians of the R.S.A. ; and of this Order, engravers not exceeding two may be members. "3. The second Order shall consist of members not exceeding twenty, who shall be called Associates of the R.S.A. ; and of this Rank, engravers not exceeding four may be members. "4. The members of both these Orders shall be professors of Paint- ^ This some years ago. The accounts of the Academy are considered as somewhat of a private nature. 2 Mrs Collie ; she married twice. ^ ggg ^ote at end of chapter. 34^ ART IN SCOTLAND. ing, Sculpture, Architecture, or Engraving, and Artists by professi( men of fair moral character, of high reputation in their several profes- sions, settled and resident in Scotland at the dates of their respective elections, and who shall not then, or thereafter, be members of any- other Society of Artists established in Edinburgh. " 5. The third Order of members shall be called Honorary Members. "6. Among these shall be a Chaplain, of high reputation as a minister of the Gospel, a Professor of Ancient History, a Professor of Ancient Literature, and a Professor of Antiquities, men of distin- guished reputation. Section IL " I. The government of the Academy is vested in a President and Council, and the general assembly of Academicians. "2. The President shall be annually elected, and shall preside at all general assemblies of Academicians and meetings of Council. " 8. The Council shall consist of six Academicians and the President, who shall have the entire direction and management of all the business of the Academy. " 10. The seats in the Council shall go by succession to all the Academicians, except the Secretary, who shall always belong thereto. The three senior members of the Council shall go out of office by rotation every year, and three shall come into it annually, in the order in which they originally were members of Council. " II. The newly elected Academicians shall be placed at the top of the list, and serve in the succeeding Council. " 25. There shall be annually one general meeting, or more if re- quisite, of the whole body of Academicians, to elect a President, declare the Council, elect a Secretary or Treasurer, &c., &c. Section in. "I. There shall be a Secretary elected annually by ballot from amongst the Academicians ; &c. "4. There shall be a Treasurer elected annually by ballot from among the Academicians ; &c. " 16. Four Academicians shall be elected annually to be visitors to the Life-School. Section IV. " I. All vacancies of Academicians shall be filled up by election from among the Associates. " II. No Academician-elect shall receive his diploma until he hath deposited in the R.S.A. (to remain there) a picture, bas-relief, engrav- ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY. 347 ing, or other specimen of his abilities, approved of by the sitting Council of the Academy. "12. The Associates shall be at least twenty-one years of age, and not apprentices. "13. Associate Painters, Sculptors, and Architects shall be elected from among the exhibitors in the Annual Exhibitions. Section V. " I. Every Associate shall, on his election, pay into the funds of the Academy the sum of fifteen guineas. On being elected an Academician he shall pay ten guineas more. "7. The existing stock and property of the Academy, and all addi- tions that shall be made to it, shall always remain dedicated and set apart for the purposes of the Academy ; and no division of such funds among the members, or application of them partially, or at once, to any objects in which members are personally interested, shall be com- petent under any circumstances. " 13. Not less than one-third of the gross annual income of the R.S.A. shall be applied annually towards the formation of a fund to be called the Pension Fund. " 14. The sum so to be applied shall, with the sum obtained from the Royal Institution, and with the sum already applied for this Fund, and with the annual interest, be annually accumulated until the Fund shall amount to ^6000, when the Council shall have power, out of the annual interest or revenue of said capital sum, to give pensions to Academicians, Associates, and the widows of Academicians and Associates. " 18. Any Academician or Associate who shall for two successive years omit to exhibit a fair proportion of his works to the annual exhibitions, shall have no claim on the Pension Fund unless he has given satisfactory proof that the default was occasioned by illness, &c. " 20. No sum exceeding £2$ shall be granted by the Council within the term of one year to any Scottish Academician, Associate, or other person whatever, without the ratification of the general assembly. Section V*. " I. Every Academician, on arriving at sixty years of age, shall be entitled to participate in the Pension Fund. " 2. The widow of an Academician shall be entitled to participate in the Pension Fund. (Rules i and 2 also apply to Associates.) " 6, An Associate, or his widow, shall be entitled to participate in 348 ART IN SCOTLAND. the proportion of three-fifths of the amount given to an Academician" or his widow. " 7. (Provides for temporary relief.) Section VI. " 2. Any member being a director of, or holding an official situa- tion in, any other society for the exhibition of pictures in Edinburgh, shall not be eligible to an official situation in the R.S.A., and shall be disqualified from attending its meetings, and shall not have access to the books of the Council and general meetings. " 3. Every Academician shall have the privilege of recommending proper objects (artists, widows, or their children) for charitable dona- tions, accompanied by a certificate, &c. Section VII. "4. No prints shall be admitted into the exhibitions but those of the Academicians and Associates who are engravers. " 15. Whoever shall exhibit with any other society (in Edinburgh) at the time when his works are exhibited in the exhibition of the R.S.A., shall neither be admitted as a candidate for an Associate, nor his performances be received the following year." Note. — For some time past the charter of the Academy has been in process of revision, and a new one has been now drawn up awaiting the Royal sanction. The intentions of the new charter are chiefly, that the Academy should be authorised to admit a larger number of Associates than are at present admis- sible ; that the Associates should be authorised to share in the election of Academicians and Associates ; that certain powers now vested in the council of the Academy should be vested in the assembly of Academicians, and certain powers now vested in the assembly of Academicians and in the council, should be vested in the general assembly of the Academy, &c. It is intended that the Academicians shall have power to alter the present or make other rules, provided they are in harmony with the supplementary charter ; and that if any Academician is resident out of Scotland for three years, the vacant place may be filled up, so that there may always be thirty Academicians resident in Scotland. There ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY. 349 is no limit proposed to be put on the number of Associates, and it is intended at present that a certain number only of that rank, in the order of seniority-, shall be entitled to participate in the pen- sion fund. The general scope of the new charter is thus to widen out the usefulness of the Academy, by allowing the Asso- ciates certain powers in its government which they do not at present possess, to increase their number and position, and to enable the Academy more thoroughly to raise the position of art in Scotland. 350 CHAPTER XVI. The National Gallery of Scotland — The National Portrait Gallery- Private collections of luorks by the old masters. The National Gallery of Scotland, as already said, was built in connection with the Royal Scottish Academy, by funds at the dis- posal of the Board of Trustees for Manufactures, assisted by a grant from Government in 1850, previous to which the Royal Institution possessed some, and had the custody of other pictures, which formed the nucleus of the present collection. The galleries at present (1887) contain in all 604 works of art, exclusive of loans for fixed periods, and may be said to include five collections, under the management of the Board, consisting of : first, 68 works, chiefly by the old masters, collected by the directors of the Royal Institution, and first exhibited in 1831 ; second, 47 works, includ- ing pictures by the old masters, bronzes, &c., bequeathed to the College of Edinburgh in 1836 by Sir James Torrie of Erskine, and in 1845 removed and deposited with the Board under a deed of agreement ; third, 209 works, chiefly modern, collected since 1829 by the Royal Scottish Academy, which include the 61 drawings forming the Lewis collection ; fourth, 262 works, chiefly ancient, purchased by or gifted to the Board of Manufactures, which include the 26 drawings from the old masters by Sanders ; fifth, 18 modern pictures, purchased and deposited by the Royal Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland, in terms of their charter. Ten pictures on loan are at present in the galleries; and the Royal Review of i860 by Sam Bough, with NATIONAL GALLERY OF SCOTLAND. 35 1 David Scott's Paracelsus the Alchemist Lecturing, have just been permanently added. Of these works 40 are sculptures, including bronzes and wax models by Michael Angelo, a case of 31 small marbles and bronzes, and three cases of medallions by Tassie. The collection of water-colour drawings by J. C. Lewis, from pictures by the most eminent old masters in the Spanish galleries, made about 1832, were purchased by the Academy in 1853, and, in ad- dition to Velasquez and other Spanish masters, contains sketches from some of the best of the old Italian and Flemish pictures. The 26 similar class of sketches by George Sanders were be- queathed to the Board, along with medallion portraits, &c., by William Tassie, nephew of the well-known gem-engraver, in 1860; and the Scott bequest of 100 drawings by modern British artists were deposited by the Board in 1864. The latter were bequeathed verbally by the late John Scott, Esq., of Messrs Colnaghi, Scott, & Co., of London, and the bequest was liberally carried out by his widow. Other donors of important works are Sir H. H. Campbell, Bart., Lady Murray, Sir J. Watson Gordon, Lady Ruthven, Mrs Williams, &c. When the Gallery was opened in its present premises on the 2 2d March 1859, the collection numbered 150 works. Among the numerous attractions of this important collection it is almost impossible to select such as are pre-eminent within any limit short of a hand-book. Among the modern works the five great canvases by William Etty are the most important productions of that eminent painter. The leading artists of the Scottish school are nearly all represented, efforts being made very wisely to secure specimens of the older men when opportunities occur : it is desir- able that the collection should include specimens of Jameson and Gavin Hamilton in painting, and the Ritchies, T. Campbell, and L. Macdonald in sculpture. The works by the old masters are almost uniformly well selected. One of the chief attractions of the galleries is the exquisite portrait of the beautiful Mrs Graham by Gainsborough, whom the poet Burns eulogised in a letter to Mr Walker of Blair-Athole /^ 352 ART IN SCOTLAND. in 1787, and to which a melancholy and romantic interest is attached. She was the second of three daughters of Lord Cath- cart (bom 1757), one of whom became Duchess of Athole, all remarkable for their beauty, and unfortunate in having died in comparative youth, one of them at least from consumption. She was married to Lord Lynedoch, then a quietly living country gentleman bearing the name and designation of Thomas Graham of Balgowan, and after several years of a happy but childless life, died in 1792, in the very noon of life and beauty. The French war broke out soon after this, and although now in middle life, being some eight years her senior, Mr Graham, in order to beguile his mind from the loss which he had sustained, became a soldier. In the course of his chivalrous career he commanded the British troops at the battle of Barossa, was raised to the peerage as Lord Lynedoch, and died in 1843, at the age of ninety-five. Although he is said to have had nothing of the recluse about him, being cheerful, and even fond of society, he could never make up his mind to look at the portrait of his lovely wife, which shortly after her death he carefully locked up and deposited in the custody of a person in London, where it remained unopened till his decease, a period of about fifty years, during which none of his friends ventured to allude to the picture. After his death search was made, and on its recovery it was exhibited at the exhibition of the British Institution in 1848, where it attracted universal admiration. It had been entailed by Lord Lynedoch ; but Mr Robert Graham, of Redgorton in Perthshire, by whom it was bequeathed to the Gallery (who died on the nth March 1859), being exceedingly anxious to secure it for this purpose, arranged with the next heir of entail to pay such a sum as it might be valued at by Mr T. Nisbet of Edinburgh, and which was fixed at ;^2ooo. Among the other modern treasures of the galleries are splendid portraits by Rae- burn, Dyce, &c. ; Duncan's Anne Page and Slender ; MacCulloch's Inverlochy Castle ; Sir J. Noel Paton's two fairy pictures from the " Midsummer Night's Dream." Prominent among the works by the old masters is the Lomel- SCOTTISH NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. 353 lini Family by Vandyke — nine feet square — one of the most im- portant works of that master. It was one of the purchases made by the late Andrew Wilson from the Marchese Luigi Lomellini, and was formerly in a state of good preservation, but has suffered very severely from restoration. Dr Waagen remarked on examin- ing it, " That whoever looks at a picture for something more than a name, can only derive a very painful impression from it." The Doctor mentions especially that the girl, which was one of the finest portions of the picture, has been almost quite destroyed ; but the present appearance of the picture hardly justifies his severe strictures. Probably the time, now nearly half a century, which has elapsed since his visit to Edinburgh, has done much to tone down the work of the restorer. The same artist's Martyr- dom of St Sebastian, nearly as important in size, was purchased at Genoa from the Balbi family, and is a noble example of Van- dyke's earlier period, when he coloured more in the manner of Rubens, although this also has been to a slight extent subjected to the operation of the restorer. A landscape by Titian, not in the very best style of that master, possesses an interest in the probability of it having belonged to Charles V. It was purchased from the Duke of Vivalda-Pasqua. Bassano is worthily represented by a noble portrait of a Senator, from the collection of the Duke of Grimaldi. A small portrait by Giorgione has the same an- cestry. Other fine works by Guercino, Bonifazio, Greuze, Ruys- dael, Snyders, &c., add to the value of a very splendid collection, worthy of the city in which it is located. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, which as yet may be said to be only in its youth, resulted from an offer of ;^io,ooo by an anonymous donor in aid of such an institution, conditionally that a like sum would be granted by Government. This offer was communicated to the Board of Manufactures by the president of the Royal Scottish Academy on the 7th December 1882. The second ;£i 0,000 was soon afterwards voted by Parliament. In May 1884, the same munificent donor offered a further sum of ;^2o,ooo for the purpose of erecting a building to accommodate 354 ART IN SCOTLAND. the Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of Antiquities, conditionally that a suitable site should be provided. This con- dition was fulfilled by means of a further grant of ;£"5ooo from Parliament and ;£"25oo from the Board of Manufactures. As a first movement towards inaugurating the scheme, a loan exhibi- tion of Scottish portraits was opened in the National Galleries during the autumn of 1884, under the management of the Board, which contained over 700 exhibits, consisting of busts, medallions, paintings, and a few engravings. The series ranged from the earliest-known portraits to those of individuals recently deceased, and was the most complete historical collection of Scottish por- traits ever gathered together. It included the portraits of James V. and Mary of Guise, already alluded to ; the Fraser- Tytler portrait of Queen Mary, from the National Portrait Gallery in London; various portraits of James VL, his queen, his son Prince Henry ; and the Hospital portrait of George Heriot, besides many of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. Among the others may be mentioned the Regent Arran, attrib- uted to Zucchero, but more probably by Sir A. More; small portraits by the latter of Mark Kerr, Abbot of Newbattle, and his wife ; James IV. and Margaret Tudor, by Holbein ; Lady Napier, wife of the first Lord Napier, by Jamesone (?) ; besides works by Garraud, Vandyke, Lely, Medina, Reynolds, Romney, Geddes, &c., some of which are now permanently located in the collection. On the 15th July 1889, the new Scottish National Portrait Gallery was formally opened by the Marquis of Lothian, Secre- tary for Scotland, with a number of noblemen and gentlemen, including the "anonymous" donor, Mr John Ritchie Findlay, whose further donations had increased his gift to about ;£^5 0,000. The Gallery then possessed 324 portraits, besides having the custody of 7 1 others granted on loan. The collection includes such portraits as Kneller's second Lord Belhaven, so famous for his speech in the Scots Parliament; Sir John Fletcher, who in 1 66 1 conducted the State prosecution against the Marquis of Argyll ; Hamilton of Bangour ; Lieutenant - General Sir Neil PRIVATE COLLECTIONS. 355 Douglas, who fought at Quatre Bras and Waterloo; Raeburn's first Lord Melville, Lords Hailes and Kames ; &c., &c. At the close of the last and beginning of the present century several private collections of works by the old masters were formed in Scotland. At Hopetoun House, the seat of Lord Hopetoun, are some good specimens of the Italian and Nether- landish schools, the chief attraction of which is an Adoration of the Shepherds by Rubens, containing eight life-sized figures. It was purchased by Lord Hopetoun in Genoa for ;^iooo. At Dalkeith Palace are fine examples of Titian, Vandyke, Claude, Ruysdael, and Rembrandt. Sir A. Campbell, Bart, of Gar- scube, possesses a moderate number of good pictures, which were collected early in the century. Among these are several specimens of the Netherlandish school; but the strength of the collection consists of pictures by the Italian masters, the chief works being an altar-piece attributed to Bonvicino (II Moretto), which was purchased from the Swedish sculptor Bystrom on the recommen- dation of Andrew Wilson in 1827, and a fine Virgin and Joseph adoring the Infant Saviour, purchased in Italy by James Irvine for Sir William Forbes, and sold by his son to the then proprietor of Garscube for ;^8oo.i 'pj^g ja^^g ]y[j- Dennistoun, author of ' The Dukes of Urbino,' possessed a few old masters, including two small works by Fiesole (one very fine), a portrait of Tasso by Alessandro AUuri, an altar-piece by Gregorio Schiavone, works by Giovanni Santi, Cima da Conegliano, &c. The most important private collection of such works, however, was that at Hamilton Palace, many of which have been sold. This collection formerly included a fine portrait of Philip IV. of Spain by Velasquez, an altar - painting containing ten figures by Luca Signorelli, Pope Clement VII. by Sebastian del Piombo, a whole-length of Napoleon and a portrait of the same Duchess of Hamilton whom Gavin Hamilton painted, by David. Among the pictures which were sold was also Rubens' Daniel in the Den of Lions. It brought ;£"5ooo, and was repurchased recently for its old place ^ Dr Waagen's Art Treasures in Great Britain, 1854. 356 ART IN SCOTLAND. in the ducal collection for ^^3000. The latter picture, measuring seven feet and a half high by nearly eleven feet wide, was formerly in the collection of Charles I., to whom it was presented by Lord Dorchester. It is one of the very few great pictures known to be entirely by the hand of the great Fleming, and is well known by the numerous engravings. A few works by the old masters have been retained, chief among which is a large altar-piece from Italy, probably by Girolamo da Libri. At Langton House, near Duns, the seat of the Hon. R. Baillie and Lady Hamilton, there is a fine collection, which passed into that house from Taymouth Castle. It contains good representative works of various schools, among which may be mentioned the exceedingly interesting boy's head engraved in Dennistoun's * Dukes of Urbino,' with its curious inscription of " Giov. Sanzio," and the date of Raphael's birth ; a Madonna and Child by Lorenzo di Credi ; two panels of an Annunciation by Luini j a large battle-piece by Salvator Rosa ; and the Feast of Herod by Rubens, purchased in Rome at the Palazzo Farnese by the second Marquis of Breadalbane. In the same collection are good works by Velasquez, Ribera, Vandyke, &c. ; numerous portraits by Jamesone, the best of which is that of a boy in a grey dress, inscribed " John, Lord Leslie, 1636," and a full-length life-size of a figure in Highland costume hung opposite Raebum's characteristic Chief of the Macnabs. There is also a capital female head by Allan Ramsay, another by Gainsborough, and specimens of Mercier, Morland, &c. The difficulty of procuring first-rate specimens of the old masters prevents any such galleries from now being formed; but the great number of enthusiastic collectors of modern paint- ings in Scotland is proof that the taste for art is still increasing. The most important of these was the late Mr Graham of Skel- morlie, the sale of whose collection, after his death, was one of the most notable recorded for many years past. 357 CHAPTER XVII. Painting in Glasgow — Glasgow Corporation Collection — Hunterian Museum Collection — Smith Institute at Stirling — Erskine Collection at Culross — Local Exhibitions — Art Unions. Next in importance to Edinburgh, the city of Glasgow claims a position in regard to the more recent culture and advancement of art in Scotland. Of the early practice of painting in this city there are neither traces nor remains. It could not have been otherwise, when we consider the recent growth of the city, and the position which it occupied up till the middle of last century. Although possessing favourable specimens of the art of the early architect, which, with the exception of the majestic and venerable cathedral, have all been swept away to make room for modern improvements, there are no vestiges of the art of the draughtsman or of the painter till within quite a recent time. When the services of the cathedral church were held with all the ecclesiastical splendour of the princely Bishop John Cameron, among the numerous relics there is no mention even of painted tabulcB^ banners, or screens, so frequent in inventories of other similar establishments, and probably the only specimens of painted art were then confined to the missals in the cathedral, the heraldic bosses on its groined ceilings, and its stained glass. Among the plate and other valu- ables of the church which were taken by Archbishop James Beaton to France in 1560, when that ecclesiastic was frightened by the progress of the Reformation in Scotland, are enumerated a gold image of the Saviour, images in silver of the twelve apostles, 358 ART in'scotland. crosiers and caskets of the precious metals, with bones and other relics of the saints, besides two chartularies, one of which, called the Red Book of Glasgow, was written in the reign of Robert III. These valuables were deposited partly in the Scotch College and partly in the Chartreuse in Paris, and cannot now be expected to be recovered. Whatever of art then existed, must have perished from the zeal of the Reformers when the order of 1560 was issued from Edinburgh for the destruction of images and the purgation of the kirks in Scotland, and probably little was left to save but the building itself, when in 1579 the craftsmen turned out so energetically to resist its destruction. Reference has already been made to a "painted brod" with the image of our Lady, in a legal action for its disputed possession by a private citizen in 1574, and which may possibly have been at one time connected with the cathedral. At a later period the Burgh Records, under date of 12th June 1641, contain a note of some local interest: "On the said day ordainis the threasaurer to have ane warrand to pay to James Colquhoun fyve dollars for drawing of the portraict of the town to be sent to Holland," possibly then intended for Blaeu's ' Atlas,' published later on at Amsterdam. Of the latter part of that century there are several portraits still preserved in and about the neighbourhood of Glasgow, of natives of the place, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that some of these may have been the result of native skill, of however humble a kind. Besides, it is not unlikely that the example of George Jamesone of Aberdeen, previously practising in^Edinburgh, had some influence in the growing commercial city of Glasgow. The classes opened by the brothers Foulis in the University in 1753, and continuing till 1775, gave the first impetus to the study of art in Glasgow ; but the unpropitious nature of the time caused it to die away, only producing occasional portraits by unknown artists for many succeeding years. Andrew Cochran, one of the pupils of the Printers' Academy, was a solitary exception, and has been already mentioned in connection with that institution. In the year 1776 the patrons of Hutcheson's Hospital unanimously PAINTING IN GLASGOW. 359 agreed to request Andrew Cochrane, Esq., the preceptor to the Hospital, " for his long and faithful services to the public . . . to sitt in order to get his picture drawn, to be hung up in the laich council chamber ; " but whether this was painted by his namesake or not is unknown, the portrait having long ago dis- appeared.^ The name of J. Henhan, Glasgow^ appears opposite a portrait in the London Academy Exhibition catalogue of 1813; but till well on into the present century there is little or nothing relating to art in Glasgow, when one or two portrait-painters ap- peared and painted a number of well-known citizens — Peter Paillou,2 from London, and an American, Chester Harding, being the most extensively employed. For the time, there is no doubt that the Trustees' Academy instituted in Edinburgh in 1760 was sufficient for the art educational requirements of Scotland, and that the 1808 and succeeding exhibitions of the Incorporated Artists, also in the capital, were as much as local encouragement could support; but an appreciation of other branches of art besides that of portraiture, no doubt existed to some extent in Glasgow, which was fostered by the scenery of the Theatre Royal, painted by Alexander Nasmyth and his family, of superior excellence. For the same Theatre, Clarkson Stanfield was also early employed, as well as David Roberts, at the rate of thirty shillings per week, in 1819 ; and this artist and W. L. Leitch bear testimony to the very high quality of the stock scenery. It was probably due to the establishment of the exhibitions by the Royal Institution in Edinburgh in 181 9, and the dissatisfac- tion of the artists who subsequently formed the Scottish Academy, that a desire was felt in Glasgow to possess something of the same kind; and on the ist of March 1821, an " Institution for Promot- ing and Encouraging the Fine Arts in the West of Scotland " was formed by a body of forty -three gentlemen, prominent among whom were the Lord Provost, J. T. Alston ; John Buchanan, M.P. ; James Ewing; Kirkman Finlay; Monteith of Carstairs; 1 Tweedie's History of Glasgow. 2 Exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1786 onwards. 36q., . ART IN SCOTLAND. and Smith of Jordanhill. Its first exhibition was opened in August of the same year, in a gallery connected with the shop of Mr Robert Finlay, carver and gilder, at 2 South Maxwell Street, containing 253 works, the principal attractions in which were the works of John Graham (-Gilbert) ; Andrew Donaldson, one of the earliest water-colour painters in Scotland ; Howard, R. A. ; D. O. Hill; Andrew Henderson, a local portrait-painter, author of a book of Scottish Proverbs ; and John Fleming of Greenock, who did many of the drawings for Joseph Swan's ' Lakes of Scotland,' &c. : Daniel Macnee made his deduf by a pen-drawing of cot- tages, and some of the small bas-reliefs of John Henning added an interest to the collection. The second exhibition, opened in May of the following year, contained some eighty-eight fewer works — the name of James Tannock, who had seven years pre- viously begun to exhibit in London, being added to the list. It is doubtful if these exhibitions were continued — probably the sup- ply of pictures was insufficient from local practitioners — and in 1825 about ten or twelve gentlemen formed the nucleus of the Dilettanti Society. The origin of this resulted from the occa- sional meeting of Andrew Henderson, James Davie, and Dr William Young; and the Society was the object of some ridicule in its infancy, which, however, did not hinder it from growing into sufficient maturity to venture its first exhibition in 1828, in rooms on the east side of the Argyle Arcade, entering by a stair near to Argyle Street. Judged by the standard of later exhibi- tions, this, like its predecessors, could of course only have been of very inferior quality, but the presence of one or two names must have given it a certain prestige: John Graham's head of Rebecca was noticed for the qualities of grace and colour in which that artist always excelled ; Horatio MacCuUoch, who had just returned from Edinburgh at the age of twenty-three, contrib- uted four works; Daniel Macnee, who was just merging into practice a little over twenty years of age, began to give promise of future excellence ; and among the twenty local artists also con- tributing were John D. Gibson (portrait), Andrew Henderson, GLASGOW DILETTANTI SOCIETY. 361 William Brown, Andrew Donaldson, and John Gilfillan. Edin- burgh art was represented by George Harvey, William Simson, John Ewbank, and John Steell the sculptor. It contained 303 works, and was sufficiently successful to warrant the Society re- peating those of the following years. The president at this time was Dr William Young, one of its promoters, the office of vice- president being held by David Hamilton, to whom Glasgow owes much as an architect for the beauty of many of its buildings. The exhibitions continued to be held in the same rooms, which were extended to three apartments in 1830, in which year the name of Mr Smith of Jordanhill appears as president. John Graham (-Gilbert) on this occasion showed five works ; Daniel Macnee, then living in Union Street, ten ; Horatio MacCulloch, four ; W. L. Leitch sent one from Mauchline ; and busts were contributed by Fletcher of Edinburgh, and the still surviving Mr John Moss- man, H.R.S.A., of Glasgow. The fourth exhibition, being the last which was held in the Arcade rooms, contained 400 works, twenty-four of which were sculptures by Fillans, Park, Ritchie, &c., the largest number hitherto attained, and offered superior attractions in the possession of four pictures exhibited by George Harvey, including his ^Covenanter's Baptism, and one work by the poetic David Scott. The fifth exhibition, that of 1832, found the Society located in rooms at 5 1 Buchanan Street, where they were continued till its eleventh year, in 1838, when they ceased for want of patronage. During these years numerous fine works were exhibited, the average number at each exhibition being 327 ; and the catalogues of the various years contain, in addition to many of those mentioned, the names of William Allan, Runciman, Wilkie, Geddes, David Cox, Copley Fielding, Roberts, and Turner. The following note appears in one of the catalogues : " On the opening of the Glasgow tenth exhibition, the directors offer their acknowledgments for the manner in which the attempts to establish an annual exhibition of the fine arts of Glasgow has hitherto been patronised. The estabhshment of these exhibitions is removed as far as possible from mercenary motives, and the 362 ART IN SCOTLAND. Society will be satisfied if the receipts equal the expenditure. If there be a surplus, it shall be disposed of for the promotion of the fine arts. The members of the Glasgow Dilettanti Society hope that their exertions to excite a taste for the fine arts in this part of Scotland may be successful, and they trust the amount of sales will show that their exertions are approved of and appreciated." Its last presidents were John Houldsworth in 1837, and James O. Anderson in 1838. During the course of these exhibitions, in the spring of 1833, an exhibition was held in the Dilettanti rooms, of pictures by John Graham-Gilbert, numbering 103 works, consisting mostly of portraits. Early in the year 1840, a movement was set on foot to revive the exhibitions, which resulted in the formation of the West of Scotland Academy. The movement originated among the local artists, and its foundation was mainly due to the efforts of Mr John Mossman the sculptor, and the late J. A. Hutchison, draw- ing-master in the High School, who was its secretary from first to last. Its first exhibition was held in the rooms previously occu- pied by the Dilettanti Society, and membership was constituted by three classes, paying twenty-five, ten, and five guineas, with corresponding privileges ; the artist members paying three, and one and a half guineas, ranking respectively as Academicians and Associates of the Academy. In subsequent catalogues it is stated that the Academy possessed a body of laws and regulations in 1841 j but whatever rules had been made were never properly embodied : this note was thus inserted with some idea of giving the exhibition importance, and with the always deferred intention of the members to have it done. An Association (Art Union) for promoting the Fine Arts in Glasgow and the West of Scotland was now instituted ; and this formed a valuable auxiliary to the exhibitions, having purchased to the extent of nearly ;£"3ooo in the first two years of the Academy's existence.^ In prefacing the second exhibition, that ^ Art Journal. WEST OF SCOTLAND ACADEMY. 363 of 1842, the following note appears: "In opening their second annual exhibition, the members of the West of Scotland Academy feel that the success of the first exhibition, and the unprecedented success of the Association for Promoting the Fine Arts, ought to have been to them a great inducement to exertion ; and however short of their own expectations they may have come, they trust that the present exhibition, the character of the works of art exhibited, and the addition of a room to their gallery, will evince to their fellow- citizens that the artists have endeavoured to deserve a continuance of that support which they now gratefully acknowledge." The Society at this time consisted of thirteen Academicians and three Associates, John Graham-Gilbert, R.S.A., being the permanent president. These exhibitions, which were continued till the year 1853, were latterly held in rooms in the Argyle Arcade,^ and probably the best of the series was that of 1850, containing two portraits by Raeburn, a Landscape by Turner, a Venetian Scene by Muller, Jesus and the Disciples at Emmaus by R. S. Lauder, two pictures by MacCuUoch, and Edinburgh after Flodden by Barker ; local art being represented by John Graham-Gilbert, J. Milne Donald, A. D. Robertson, D. Munro, and T. Knott, in addition to water-colours by Sam Bough, Copley Fielding, Penley, and Richardson— and sculpture by George Mossman. The hanging of this exhibition, always a most unsatisfactory labour, caused a great amount of local discon- tent, one of the exhibitors allowing his indignation to carry him so far as to daub his picture over with mortar, a process which may have attracted attention to the picture, but could scarcely have added to the appearance of the wall. This Academy did not allow its exhibitions to cease without some efforts on the part of its committee for their continuance. Several of the members were certain of ultimate success, if they could hold on for a few years, and proposals were made to endeavour to obtain premises of their own, one being that they should purchase a small block of building at the south-west corner ^ In the western portion, near to Buchanan Street. 364 ART IN SCOTLAND. of Buchanan and St Vincent Streets, then valued at ;^2ooo. One of the most earnest advocates of this proposal was John Graham-Gilbert, who offered, in the event of its turning out a failure, to take the entire risk on himself; but unfortunately the members were too timid. Had they entered into the scheme, the enormous increase on the value of the site in after-years would have placed the Academy and its exhibitions on such a footing as for the future to relieve them of all pecuniary embarrassments. The town council were afterwards approached with a view to afford facilities to the Academy for having the exhibitions held in the Corporation rooms, when that body appointed a sub-com- mittee to confer with the treasurer of the Academy. This com- mittee, however, declined to allow them the use of the rooms, except on condition that the town council should receive all the income : the exhibitors were expected to pay all the expenditure, the latter body being supposed entitled to enjoy this privilege in return for being thus afforded a mart for the sale of their pictures. The affairs of the Academy were not finally wound up till 1886, when the small remnant of its funds and its limited library were handed over, with the consent of the few survivors, to the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. Efforts, however, had in the meantime been made to get up annual exhibitions. On the 30th September 1851 a public meet- ing was held to promote the establishment of an Institute of the Fine Arts, the chief agitators in which were the Lord Provost, Sir James Campbell, Mr Napier the engineer, and Mr A. M'Lellan. A numerous committee was appointed to obtain plans for a build- ing and draw up regulations. The plans, however, were found unsuitable, both in regard to external design and internal accom- modation, and the matter in consequence lay in abeyance. Funds were awanting, and in 1854-55 efforts were made by means of exhibitions to raise money without success, although good pic- tures by important artists were exhibited, notably Wilkie, Stan- field, Constable, Etty, Dubufe, Gudin, &c. A new and less ambitious effort was made later on, resulting in the formation of GLASGOW EXHIBITIONS. 365 the present Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, which opened its first exhibition in the Corporation Galleries in 1861, the rent for which was defrayed from the proceeds of the exhibitions. On account of an intimation, after some years, from the town council, that these rooms must cease to be available for this purpose, the Institute determined to obtain premises of its own, and in the year 1880 opened its exhibition in the present Galleries in Sauchie- hall Street, which the members built for the purpose, but very heavily burdened with bonds. In order partly to relieve the large annual interest on this debt, the council found it necessary a few years ago to sell several pictures which it had from time to time acquired towards the formation of a permanent collection ; these included specimens of Sam Bough, Oakes, Long, Yeames, An- drew Gow, &c., &c. This Art Institute has rendered the most important services to art in Scotland, and has all along been thoroughly well managed. It is now in a better position, and looks forward to a further augmentation of its members, in order to develop its full intentions, not only by continuing to afford accom- modation for the annual exhibitions, but also to stock an art library, and otherwise aid in the advancement of art generally. Membership is constituted by a single payment of ;^io or ^2$^ with corresponding privileges : a third class, contributing a pay- ment of ;^5, also exists, but this list was closed some years ago. A good Art Club also exists in Glasgow, which, from an obscure beginning by a few young local artists in 1867, has now attained a respectable position. In the year 1855 an exhibition, which owed its existence to the efforts of twelve local architects, was held in Bath Street, with a view to the establishment of a permanent museum. Like its pre- decessors, it was a financial failure, and not over-well managed at the beginning. It included examples of the arts and manufactures connected with architecture. Among the works exhibited were groups by Thomas the sculptor ; a vase executed by Triqueti for the late King of France; a marble group by the same artist; enamels, metal, and other works, lent by the Duke of Hamilton, 366 ART IN SCOTLAND. Mr Campbell of Blythswood, Henry Glassford Bell, &c. ; besides specimens of furniture, stained glass, wall decorations, and archi- tectural designs. It also contained about sixty drawings by David Roberts, a View of Athens by Grecian Williams, Rome by Andrew Wilson, pencil drawings of Roman remains in Africa made by Abyssinian Bruce between 1765 and 1766, and one hundred and fifty architectural drawings lent by Dr Puttrick of Leipzig. In the following year the important collection of paintings forming the basis of the Corporation collection passed into the possession of the city. Mr Archibald M'Lellan, a coachbuilder, and town councillor and magistrate of Glasgow, had during the course of about thirty years acquired an important collection, chiefly by the old masters, for which he built a suite of three galleries in Sauchiehall Street. These he bequeathed to his native city j but on his death in 1854 his affairs were found to be in such a condition, that to take advantage of the bequest it became necessary to purchase the galleries with their contents for ^^44,500. When the purchase was discussed in the town council in 1856, the resolution was only carried by a majority of five, forty-three voting, objections being taken to the nude figures in the collection, and to the alleged fact that Mr M'Lellan was in the habit of him- self " improving " the pictures, one of the council characterising it as a collection of rubbish. Although there was some modicum of truth in each of these objections, the council wisely agreed to the purchase, and ;£"i 5,000 were paid for the pictures and a few pieces of sculpture, and ;^29,5oo for the galleries. By the bequest of Mr William Ewing, eighty-seven works were added; and one hundred and thirty-six by the late Mrs J. Graham-Gilbert, consist- ing largely of pictures by her husband. The total number of works now stands at six hundred and twenty-six. The collection has been twice weeded, neither too wisely nor too well.^ Many ^ The late Sir Daniel Macnee stated in the hearing of the author, that he was shown a beautiful Dutch picture in the house of a gentleman in Stirlingshire, which he was astonished to find was one of those he had himself had a hand in eliminating from the collection, and had been afterwards cleaned. At the same GLASGOW CORPORATION GALLERIES. 367 of the pictures have been severely restored ; but notwithstanding this, the collection is a very noble although somewhat mixed one, and is well cared for. A few recent additions have been made, one of the latest of which, acquired by purchase, might well have been dispensed with. In the Glasgow Corporation Galleries, as the original M'Lellan collection is now designated, the Dutch and late Flemish artists are well represented. Among the more important works may be mentioned a view of the town of Katwyck near Scheveningen, seen under a dull cloud, with the sea in the distance, a fine exam- ple of Ruysdael ; the Virgin and Child with a St George and other Saints, by Paris Bordone ; the Woman taken in Adultery, attributed to Giorgione ; a moderate-sized Holy Family, assigned to the early period of Titian (very much restored) ; a capital specimen of Mabuse in his very best manner ; a Virgin and Child by Murillo, from the collection of Lucien Bonaparte (retouched) ; and a large panel -picture of the Madonna enthroned and sur- rounded by Saints and Angels with musical instruments, assigned with much probability to the early period of Giorgione. The latter very noble picture was attributed to Bellini at the sale of the Solly collection, where it was retained unsold at the reserve price of 500 guineas before passing into the possession of Mr M'Lellan. Among the British pictures are good examples of Reynolds, Richard Wilson, Thomas Duncan, Creswick, &c. A number of portraits formerly in the old Town Hall, by Scougal, Ramsay, &c., are now located there. The University of the same city also possesses a fairly good collection of the old masters, which was formed by the celebrated Dr Hunter, who founded the Hunterian Museum. Many of the pictures were selected by Sir Robert Strange the engraver. Prominent among the works are a beautiful landscape of much restrained power by Philip de Koninck; an Entombment by sale from the first weeding in which this was sold, a fine little Venetian picture of the school of Paul Veronese was being knocked down for 25s. ; the author ran it up to a few pounds, when it got beyond his means. 368 ART IN SCOTLAND. Rembrandt; a strange and wild conception of Laomedon by Salvator ; a head of St Peter by Rubens ; a well-executed study of a Dead Stag, &c., by Snyders ; a Female Saint by Domenichino ; a somewhat feeble Christ as the Good Shepherd by Murillo ; and a spirited portrait of Dr Hunter from the brush of Sir Joshua Reynolds. For some years past efforts have been made in almost every town in Scotland of any importance for the institution of art associations and annual exhibitions, many of which have ceased for various causes, the chief of which has been an insufficient income. The famous old town of Stirling, so celebrated in Scottish history, owes to the munificence of the late Thomas Stewart Smith the handsome building known as the Smith Insti- tute, which was opened on the nth August 1874. Mr Smith, who practised as an artist for many years at home and abroad without making any great impression on the public, came into possession about 1858 of the estate of Glassingall, after which he comfortably settled down to enjoy the life of a Scottish laird. Soon, however, getting tired of this, he sold the estate and went to London in order to indulge in his favourite artistic pursuits ; and taking a studio in Fitzroy Square, gathered round him his old friends with whom he had formerly associated at Rome. Before his last Continental visit he intimated to the Corporation of Stirling, that if they would grant a suitable site for the purpose, he would bear the expense of erecting a suite of rooms, supplying accommodation for picture-galleries, museum, and a reading-room. For this purpose he bequeathed a sum of ;^2 2,000 under trustees, together with a large collection of pictures, including many of his own. He died at Avignon on the 31st December 1869, and the building was erected from the designs of Mr Lessels of Edinburgh. The late eminent Sir William Stirling-Maxwell of Keir officiated at the opening, and with several others inaugurated the Institute by a loan collection of ancient and modern pictures. The permanent collection contains many excellent examples, including works by J. D. Harding, Sam Bough, William Hunt, John Phillip, David LOCAL EXHIBITIONS. 369 Cox, &c. Annual exhibitions were commenced about 1880, but after some years were discontinued. Close to the quiet old town of Culross, on the shores of the Firth of Forth, is the castle of Dunimarle, which with its grounds was bequeathed to the public by Mrs Sharp e-Erskine, who died ist March 1872. This venerable lady was the youngest daughter, and the last surviving, of the family of General Sir William Erskine of Torrie, and sister of Sir James Erskine, the donor of the Torrie bequest to the Scottish National Gallery. She included in the bequest a small but choice collection of paintings, chiefly of the Flemish school, besides many other works of art collected by herself and her brother, and over 4000 volumes constituting a library of reference. This is known as the Erskine of Torrie Institute, and its maintenance is further provided for in the bequest intrusted to the care of trustees. Among other art institutions may be mentioned the Fine Art Association of Kirkcaldy, which may be said to have led the way among the smaller towns in the institution of annual exhi- bitions in 1872. Of late, however, its exhibitions have been discontinued, chiefly for want of proper rooms. The town of Paisley, which possesses an appreciative population, possesses permanent art galleries, due to the munificence of Sir Peter Coats, and has an Art Institute holding annual exhibitions and occasional conversazioni. Dundee, one of the most enterprising of the Scottish towns, had an exhibition in 1857, visited by nearly 7000 people, followed by another ten years later on the occasion of the visit of the British Association: this contained 621 works of art, many by eminent artists, and was unusually well attended. A special exhibition was held at the opening of the picture-gallery wing of the Albert Institute in 1873-74, which included a collection of art works from South Kensington ; and the permanent annual exhibitions commenced in the same building in 1877, the sales amounting during the most successful year (1882) to ;£"82oo. During the ten years in which the exhibitions have been in operation, works to the annual average value of over ;£"5ooo 2 A 370 ART IN SCOTLAND. have been purchased in a town having a population of 142,000. It also possesses the nucleus of a permanent collection, con- sisting of seventy-one works donated by Messrs Dalglish, Orchar, Keiller, &c., and a movement is now being made to enlarge the galleries to accommodate the annual exhibitions.^ Greenock started exhibitions in 1863, which, however, only lasted four or five years. As a rule, these were of marked excellence considering the size of the place, and among the loan pictures contributed were good examples of David Scott, Sir J. Noel Paton, T. Duncan, Herdman, Graham-Gilbert, and other prominent artists. In recent years art clubs for the purposes of study and social intercourse among artists have sprung up nearly everywhere. There is, however, a very evident danger to the future of art in the present plethora of exhibitions, to which artists, especially the younger ones, in their desire to contribute and effect sales, may be led into the hasty production of unimportant works, instead of putting out all their strength on those which will lead to a greater reward in the future. One of the many developments of the commercial spirit of the present century is the Art Union scheme, by which numerous contributors of small sums become purchasers of a limited number of works of art, which are afterwards balloted for; some of the associations allotting certain sums in place of pictures, &c., the winners of which are bound by the conditions to select one or more works of art, upon which the whole value of the prize sum must be expended. In addition to these prizes, the more im- portant associations give to each of their subscribers an engraving, folios, photographs, &c., representing a portion of the subscrip- tion money, the balance of which goes to the acquisition of prizes and the expenses of the general management. By these means numerous pictures pass from the walls of exhibitions into the possession of many who could never otherwise acquire a good work of art, to the mutual benefit of the artist and subscribers, and also to that of the exhibitions from which the prizes are ^ The enlargement of the galleries is now completed. I k ART UNIONS. 371 selected. As exhibitions have sprung up in almost every town of any importance, art unions have become almost equally numerous, the yearly subscriptions to which range from one shilling to one guinea. The many very excellent engravings, photographs, statuettes, &c., disseminated by this means have done much to cultivate a taste for art ; and being only legal by the sanction of the Board of Trade, have been generally well managed. The first of the kind in Britain was the Royal Association for Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland, which owed its origin to the suggestion of D. O. Hill, R.S.A., afterwards taken up by (Sir) John Steell, R.S.A., and SheriiT Glassford Bell, the last mentioned of whom first made it public and devised a constitution. It was founded in the year 1833-34, and received its charter of incorpora- tion in 1848. The annual subscription to this Association is one guinea, each subscriber receiving an engraving, or set of en- gravings, for the year to which he subscribes. After allowance for this and working expenses, pictures are purchased by the directors from the exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy, afterwards balloted for distribution among the fortunate subscribers.^ In conformity with the regulations included in the charter, a per- centage (not exceeding ten per cent) of the gross amount of the annual subscriptions is set apart each year towards the purchase of a modern work of art, to be deposited in the National Gal- lery of Scotland, which, however, remains the property of the Association. At the year 1842, this Association had realised since it founda- tion upwards of ;£3i,ooo, of which sum about ;^22,ooo had been expended in the purchase of paintings and sculpture, and ;£"9ooo appropriated to the dissemination of engravings and the necessary machinery to awaken and keep alive an interest in the proceedings of the Association, and of art throughout the country. The sub- scriptions at that time amounted to between ^6000 and j^'yooo, which have since considerably diminished, owing very probably to ^ Pictures are now selected, in addition, from other exhibitions also. 372 ART IN SCOTLAND. the number of similar associations constituted since that time. In the year 1859, after a quarter of a century of its existence, the sub- scriptions amounted to ^44^6, and up till that date the large sum of ;^io6,ooo had been expended in the purchase of works of art. During the last year (1886-87) the subscriptions amounted to ;£"3298, IS., out of which ;^996, us. 6d. were expended on forty- eight works of art as prizes, and '' the sum now at the credit of the National Gallery Fund amounts to p£^457, 5s. 8d., inclusive of the percentage on the gross amount of this year's subscriptions, which has been fixed at one-half per cent, in compliance with the Association's charter of incorporation." ^ Among the more notable of the sixteen works deposited by the Association in the Scottish National Gallery may be mentioned R. Scott Lauder's Christ teaching Humility, purchased in 1849 ^^^ ;^22o ; Sir Noel Paton's Quarrel of Oberon and Titania, in 1850, ;^7oo ; Dawn revealing the New World to Columbus, 1855, ^S^S'} Drummond's Porteous Mob, 1856, ;^i6o; MacCuUoch's Inverlochy Castle, 1857, ^^200 ; Phillip's Spanish Boys playing at Bull - fighting, 1867, ;^9oo ; Hutchison's Marble Bust of Pasquiccia, 1870, ;£"io5 ; Herdman's Scene after the Battle, 187 1, ;^27o, 5s. j and G. Paul Chalmers's Legend, 1878, ;£"525.2 The engravings supplied to the subscribers are usually of a very high quality, generally illustrative of Scottish scenery and literature; and the very highest praise cannot but be awarded to such works as the Dowie Dens of Yarrow and others similar. In the year 1837, a new Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland was started on somewhat similar lines, with this difference, that the amount of annual subscriptions was divided into various sums, which, being appropriated among the members by ballot, each holder of a prize exercised his individual judgment in the purchase of a picture, the price of which had to include the amount of the prize, from the exhibition of the Scottish Academy. The subscription to this was also one guinea, and prize- holders were not allowed to divide the value of the prize in the 1 Extract from Report 1886-87, furnished by Mr Cornillon. ^ jbid. ART UNIONS. 373 purchase of more than one work of art. To this Association the subscribers for the year 1837-38 amounted to 340 ; in 1839, 811 ; in 1840, loiij in 1841, 1228; and in 1842, 1290 — at which date its title was altered to the Art Union of Scotland. The engraving which was issued for the last-mentioned year was by Robert Bell, from the picture of the Expected Penny by Alex. Fraser, A.R.S.A. (the elder), followed by Andrew Sommerville's Flowers of the Forest. It has now ceased to exist. As was naturally to be expected, the example of Edinburgh was soon followed elsewhere, and in Glasgow, about the year 1841, there was formed a short-lived Association of a similar kind for the West of Scotland. Its object was to foster the exhibitions of the West of Scotland Academy, and it was so far successful that within the first two years of its existence its subscriptions amounted to nearly ;^3ooo. On this Association the Glasgow Art Union was formed a few years later, the rules of which were based upon those of the London Art Union. The subscription was fixed at one guinea, prints were issued to the subscribers, and the managers, as in the case of the first and still existing Association in Edinburgh, purchased the prizes for distribution. This Art Union is still existing. BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL NOTICES OF THE LEADING DECEASED SCOTTISH PAINTERS 1800-1889. BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL NOTICES. WILLIAM BONNAR, R.S.A. Born, 1800; died, 1853. BoNNAR was a native of Edinburgh, the son of a well-known decora- tor and house-painter, whose business is still existing, which trade he followed till about his twenty-fourth year, when, having shown indications of a higher talent than that which was required in the practice of his ordinary work, he took to art as a profession. Two years previous to this he had assisted David Roberts in decorating the Edinburgh Assembly Rooms, preparatory to the State ball given on the occasion of the visit of George IV. to Edinburgh, and soon afterwards made some attempts at small pictures, which were so far successful that he was induced to follow the advice of the well- known Captain Basil Hall, whose notice was attracted by some of his sign-boards. His first important picture was the Tinkers, painted in 1824, six years after which he was elected an Academi- cian of the Scottish Academy, subsequent to the union of the artists who had seceded from the Royal Institution. For several years he had a reputation for scenes from Scottish poetry and pastoral life, but soon abandoned such subjects for the more lucrative profession of a portrait-painter, which he successfully pursued till his death. He was a fairly successful etcher of old ballad and domestic subjects, although comparatively unknown as such, and 37^ ART IN SCOTLAND. several of his pictures have been engraved. His most important picture was John Knox administering the Sacrament, a large work, well drawn and good in colour, although rather dark and brown in tone.^ The general style of his work was based upon that of Wilkie, but very much more loose and sketchy, in point of execution not unlike the elder Fraser. He cannot be said to have possessed the qualities of art neces- sary to success in the class of subject-pictures which he sometimes attempted. Besides not possessing much power or originality of conception and expression, his pictures were often hurt by a crudeness of colour. He was a regular contributor to the ex- hibitions of the Royal Scottish Academy, and had a younger brother named Thomas, who was a good painter of domestic subjects. Two of William's portraits, of small size, in the Scottish National Gallery, represent his style of work — one of himself and the other of Kemp the architect, the former of which is rather dark in colour, owing to the too free use of asphaltum, which has ruined so many Scottish pictures of that period. 1 SAMUEL BOUGH, R.S.A. Born, 1822; died, 19th November 1878. Sam Bough, as he delighted to be called, although in every sense a Scottish artist, was by birth an Englishman, having been born in the legendary city of Carlisle, where the first two years of his working life were spent in the office of the town clerk. A strong liking and natural capability for art early induced him to adopt it as a profession, and with very little experience and no instruction he made his way to London, where the acquaintance of George Lance enabled him to pick up some knowledge from the artists with whom he was thus brought into contact. Always a Bohemian, he knocked about a good deal, and took to scene- painting, in which he was first employed at Manchester, from 1 Sold with Lord Northwick's Collection in 1859 for 130 guineas. SAMUEL BOUGH. 379 whence he moved to Glasgow, where he wrought at the Theatre Royal, painted interior decorations, drew illustrations for guide- books, and whatever else of a kindred nature came in his way. After moving about in different places, he finally settled in Edin- burgh in 1855, where he rapidly took a leading position, and was elected Associate of the Scottish Academy in the following year, and full Academician in 1875. He was a regular contributor to the Edinburgh exhibitions, and more especially in the earlier part of his career at the Royal Academy in London. Dying so recently, his style and work are so well known to every frequenter of the now numerous loan and other exhibitions in Scotland that it is almost needless to refer to them. Between his clever Dumbarton Shipyard, painted in 1855, and his latest pictures, a long list might be enumerated of large and important works, any one of which would have made the reputation of an ordinary artist. In wealth of resource and facility of execution he is unequalled : his splendid picture of Borrowdale, a river running through a mountain valley, is teeming with atmosphere and motion, and the poetry born from acute observation of nature; his Frosty Morning at Winton Castle (the home of his friend the artistic and venerable late Lady Ruthven) has all the charm suggested by its title, and was one of the envied treasures of the Royal Academy exhibition, in which it occupied a prominent position; and his Volunteer Review, now happily acquired by the Scottish National Gallery, is a perfect tour de force in its way. In the latter picture, the vast multitude of people on the hillsides are shown gradually assuming definiteness as the nearer ground is approached, where parties are picnicking on the grass ; a corps of artillery is grouped in the front near the centre of the picture, and magnificent masses of serried troops are wheeling on the low ground in the middle distance ; farther off rises the picturesque Calton Hill, while the landscape is appropriately terminated by the huge castled rock of Edinburgh, completing, by a grandly painted sky with wind-blown clouds, a picture full of material, free of confusion, and sparkling with all the open-air feeling of a breezy VJ,J?_^'i.-.J;.) 380 ART IN SCOTLAND summer day, full of life, light, and colour. His style of painting was massive and hasty, but seldom careless ; sometimes his colour was apt to become cold, but many of his smaller works representa- tive of sunsets at the fishing harbours on the east coast are warm and delicate. He had a thorough knowledge of atmospheric effect, and his works are generally pervaded by a strong feeling of day- light ; and he was equally happy, perhaps more so, in his water- colour drawings. " The man's unshaken courage and great mus- cular power seem to have more directly found expression in this field. It was a sight to see him attack a sketch, peering boldly through his spectacles, and, with somewhat tremulous fingers, flooding the page with colour: for a moment it was an in- describable hurly-burly, and then chaos would become ordered, and you would see a speaking transcript; his method was an act of dashing conduct, like the capture of a fort in war. One of his sketches in particular, a night-piece on a headland, where the atmosphere of tempest, the darkness, and the mingled spray and rain, are conveyed with remarkable truth and force, was painted to hang near a Turner ; and his answer to some words of praise, * Yes, lad,' said he, ' I wasn't going to look like a fool beside the old man.' " ^ Sam was one of the best-known notabilities of Edinburgh. Burly and rough in his manners as well as clothes, he sometimes affected a rude and levelling manner, and often disregarded pro- priety in speaking to those who assumed consequential airs ; yet withal, full of warm-heartedness, geniality, and good-humour. While openly sneering at all that was mean and bad, he was ever ready to do a good action, more especially by advice and otherwise, to aid a rising artist. He was a good violinist, sang a capital song, and was well read, more especially in the literature of the Queen Anne period. " It was delightful," says Mr R. L. Stevenson, " to hear him when he spoke of Carlisle, Cumberland, and John Peel, the famous hunter ; or when he narrated his own experience — cobbling shoes beside his father, gipsying among 1 Mr Robert Louis Stevenson in the ' Academy.' JAMES CASSIE. 38 1 the moors to sketch, working in the docks as a porter, or painting scenes and sometimes taking a part at local theatres. As we may say of books that they are readable, we may say of his talk that it was eminently bearable. He could broider romance into his narratives, and you were none the wiser; they had the grit and body of reality, the unity of a humorous masterpiece ; and the talents of the novelist and the comedian were pressed together into the service of your entertainment." ^ He was a most in- defatigable worker : not only in his studio but in his home some bit of work was always handy to fill up an odd hour when he felt inclined — hence the great multitude of small sketches bearing his signature, which were still further increased within a year or two after his death by forged imitations, when they were eagerly sought after. He was buried in the Dean Cemetery, where a simple monu- ment of grey granite with a medallion bust by Brodie marks his grave. JAMES CASSIE, R.S.A. Born, 1819; died, 1879. James Cassie was one of the many artists whose simple and un- eventful lives yield little of interest to chronicle beyond a few dates. He was born at Inverurie, and spent most of his life in Aberdeen, where he painted portraits, landscapes, and genre sub- jects. In the line of portraiture he possessed very considerable talent, and in the Trinity Hall of Aberdeen he is represented by three very good half-lengths, from the ability displayed in which he would have met with considerable success if he had con- tinued to pursue that branch of art. He is, however, almost ex- clusively known as a landscape-painter, latterly confining his subjects to the sea and sea -shore, which he represented with breadth and simplicity, combined with sweetness of colour. He painted few large pictures : they were mostly as modest in size as in subject. He was happy with a bit of sea-shore, sand, and grey- ^ The Academy. 382 ART IN SCOTLAND. green bent or grass, with an object in the foreground, under the soft shimmer of a summer haze, painted in a simple scheme of colour tender and grey in tone. He was elected an Associate of the Scottish Academy in 1869, and ten years later an Academician, in the ye;^r in which he died. Personally he was highly and de- servedly esteemed, and regularly contributed many good pictures to the Academy's exhibitions, his Dumbarton Castle Sunset (1874) being one of the many very favourably noticed by the press. He spent the last years of his life in Edinburgh, where he is represented in the National Gallery by a small picture of Morning on the East Coast. GEORGE PAUL CHALMERS, R.S.A. Born, 1836; died, February 1878. This gifted artist, who died at the early age of forty-two, after having given evidence of the possession of such genius as would, had he been longer spared, have placed him in the very first rank among the artists of Britain, was a native of Montrose, and edu- cated at the burgh school there. He was apprenticed at an early age to a ship-chandler in his native town, but soon found the work so intolerable that he went to Edinburgh, and managed to obtain admission to the Trustees' Academy, then under the direc- tion of Robert Scott Lauder. He led a simple life, absorbed in the love of his art, and early gave evidence of his future power in colour and poetic feeling. He was seldom or never satisfied with his own work. He experimented on himself, not through want of decision or in imitation of others, but with a desire to find out new forms of expression in art. His earlier efibrts were loose in style, but he gradually wrought himself into a careful and highly finished manner, by which he gained in knowledge, and which in time gave way to great breadth, retaining, however, all the beauty and quality of true artistic finish, without the painful feeling induced by elaborated minuteness, so characteristic of the greatest art. Of the care and time, as well as the thought, bestowed upon his work, GEORGE PAUL CHALMERS. 383 no better example could be wished for than the unfinished Legend in the Scottish National Gallery, in which a most admirably- painted figure of an old woman is represented in the act of relating some weird story of bygone days to a group of listening children. This picture, which even in its present state is perhaps his greatest, had been kept beside him for very many years, and was purchased after his death by the Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland for 500 guineas, who issued a good etching of the picture to the subscribers. One thousand guineas had been ofi'ered for it when it was on view with his other works at the sale after his death, but his friends refused this offer in order that it might be added permanently to the National Gallery. His admirably painted head of the late Mr John M 'Gavin, of Glasgow, is an excellent example of his style in portraiture. So much care did he bestow upon this work that Mr M 'Gavin gave him from forty to fifty sittings, being a great friend of the artist and much interested in art. Among his other fine heads may be mentioned those of Mr J. C. Bell, and Dr Tuke of Edinburgh, both containing the highest qualities of Rembrandt's art in their fine feeling for light and shade, beautiful colour, and admirable technique. Another very excellent specimen of his art, and one which it would be diflficult to surpass, is his Miserere Mei, belong- ing to Dr A. B. Spence, of Dundee. This represents a middle- aged but prematurely old monk, in grey frock and hood, with eyes hollowed by long vigils, short black lank hair, and upturned face, clasping in his nervous hands a string of beads with pendant crucifix, to which is attached a miniature skull. The figure is half-length, and the time and care which the artist seems to have bestowed on it have resulted in a work which is in all respects worthy of the very highest praise. To his great gift of colour he added the still rarer quality of subtlety of expression, and these he exercised upon whatever subject presented itself to his fancy, whether landscape, portrait, genre^ or a simple interior void of figures. One of his most im- portant landscapes is that entitled Running Water, in which the 384 ART IN SCOTLAND. steady flow of a full stream is checked and broken by some boulders near its middle, against which the breaking and plunging of the brown water wrought into foam is painted with great skill. A belt of trees and partial glimpses of a grey sky fill up the back- ground, allowing the eye to rest in quiet possession of the subject of the picture. An enthusiast in art, and a great favourite with his numerous friends and admirers, his sudden and unexpected death, resulting from an accident on the evening of the opening dinner of the Academy's exhibition of 1878, was the cause of much sorrow. He was elected Associate of the Academy in 1867, and full Academician in 187 1. ALEXANDER CHRISTIE, A.R.S.A. Born, 1807 ; died, 5th May i860. This artist began life in a writer's office in Edinburgh, of which city he was a native. After serving his apprenticeship and prac tising for some time as a lawyer, he yielded to a resistless desire to adopt art as a profession, and began to study in his twenty-sixth year at the Trustees* Academy, then under the superintendence of Sir William Allan. He afterwards went to London, where he for some time further prosecuted his studies, but returned and finally settled in Edinburgh, where he was appointed an assistant-teacher in the Academy in which he had first studied, in succession to Thomas Duncan, in the ornamental department. He has left a memento of this period of his career in two or three figures of saints against a decorated gold background in the Byzantine manner, painted from his designs by his pupils T. Faed and J. Macdonald. He was elected an Associate of the Academy in 1848, and is represented in the Scottish National Gallery by an Incident in the Plague of London, showing the figure of a man returning to his home and startled by finding the plague-mark of the cross on his door. One of the most notable of his works is Oliver Cromwell, exhibited at the Scottish Academy in 1843. ^^ I n lich ■ rac- I ROBERT M. COOPER. 385 the Westminster Hall competition in 1847 ^^ contributed Sir John Moore carried from the Field of Corunna. He drew well and painted with considerable vigour, but was rather hard, rough, and strong in his manner. ROBERT M. COOPER. Born, i8i3(?); died, (?). It frequently happens that men possessed of power and genius are born or afterwards placed under circumstances too unfavour- able to permit of the full development of their power, or recogni- tion of their abilities, and so pass away unappreciated till long after their deaths. Such an artist was Robert M. Cooper, who was gifted with extraordinary talent, and whose pictures, possessed of rare merit, are seldom to be met with. He was a native of Edinburgh, and after working some time in Glasgow went to Lon- don — on account, it is said, of domestic unhappiness — where he was immediately employed as a scene-painter with Grieve, the Wilsons — father and son — and by Telbin, who held his abilities in high estimation. Life seemed to have afforded him little happiness in London, where he was found lying unconscious in Brunswick Square, near to the house where he then lodged. An inquest was held, and it was found that he had eaten some poisoned mussels for supper the previous evening. He found a last resting-place in Kensal Green Cemetery, and left a widow, who received a small pension from the Scottish Corporation. During the time in which he was in Glasgow, he gave lessons in painting in his house in Shuttle Street. He painted, mostly in oil, figure and landscape subjects with equal facility. His land- scapes are full of rich deep warm colour, great breadth, and free masterly execution — in such respects very closely resembling the work of MuUer. Among these, two very notable ones shown at the Glasgow Dilettanti exhibitions were a large woody subject entitled Inveruglas, and an upright Scottish Glen. A charming little example is in the possession of Mr John Mossman, H.R.S.A. 2 B 386 ART IN'sCOTLAND. He did a good portrait of the poet Montgomery, which has been engraved, and his last work was on some of the scenery at Windsor Castle Theatre, for the performances of Charles Kean, for Prince Albert. WILLIAM CRABB. Born, 1811 ; died, 20th July 1876. Another almost now equally unknown artist, whose works are about as rarely to be seen as those of Cooper, and who ranked high in the opinion of his contemporaries, was William Crabb, born in 181 1. He was a native of Laurencekirk, and one of the students at the Trustees' Academy. When the three large pictures by Etty were purchased by the Scottish Academy, Crabb being then an advanced student, was among the first who were permitted to copy from them. His work having attracted the attention of Grant — afterwards Sir Francis Grant of the Royal Academy — he was employed by that artist as an assistant for painting draperies, &c., and accompanied Grant to London. He was of a singularly retiring disposition, the very reverse of a self- assertive advertising artist. He latterly became totally blind, and died at Laurencekirk in the house of his sister, who with touching affection waited upon him till he breathed his last. Being always most kind to the younger members of his profession, many of them benefited by his advice. He was practising his art in Scotland till about 1845, ^^^ painted numerous portraits, very similar in style, and sometimes almost equal in quality, to those of Raeburn. He painted with great rapidity, and, like Cooper, for small remuneration. A portrait of Mr Monteith of Carstairs — that of an old man in a blue coat — of great excellence, was paid for with j£^. Numerous others of high merit are still in the mansion-houses of Scotland ; and it is told of him, in illustration of his facile execution, that he went from Glasgow to Manchester and finished a whole-length portrait within two days. In Glasgow he exhibited a large picture of EDMUND THORNTON CRAWFORD. 387 Joseph's Brethren showing the Coat to Jacob ; an Incident in the Life of the Bishop of Mearns ; and a small cabinet picture of high quality, entitled Will ye gang to the Highlands, Leezie Lindsay ? ^ His portrait of Richard Monckton Milnes, M.P.,was very notable in the Royal Academy exhibition of 1848, not only for its striking likeness to the original, but for its artistic qualities of natural pose and movement, forcible execution, and happy contrast between the stiffness of the dress and ease of the head. In the following year, although placed rather high, his small full-length of George Mackenzie, Esq., in Highland costume, with a lady seated near him, attracted attention by its pictorial treatment, decided painting, and fresh and brilliant colour. A youth and maiden (R. A., 1850) seated under the shade of a hawthorn-tree, characterised by his usual qualities, was succeeded in the following year by his more important picture of Ahab and his queen Jezebel surprised by Elijah in the Vineyard. In the latter picture the king is repre- sented, after having left his seat, as "fallen into a supplicating attitude at the approach of the prophet, who stands calmly on the right;" showing "a striking originality in the costumes of the figures, which have been adapted from the Nineveh remains, and remarkable for its decided style, unexceptional drawing, and powerful colour." 2 One of his pictures, an early and not very favourable example from the ' Lady of the Lake,' was exhibited at the Edinburgh Inter- national Exhibition of 1886. Another of his works is now (1889) in the Winter Exhibition of the Royal Academy in London. EDMUND THORNTON CRAWFORD, R.S.A. Born, 1806; died, 29th September 1885. The art of landscape - painting in Scotland, as practised by Thomson of Duddingston, is linked almost to that of the present 1 Communicated by Messrs J. Mossman and Greenlees of Glasgow, and Mr J. Sutcliffe of London. 2 Art Journal critique. 388 ART IN SCOTLAND. day by the numerous works of E. T. Crawford, whose memory is still fresh among his many friends. He was born at Cowden, near Dalkeith, the son of a comparatively well-to-do land-surveyor, and had his apprenticeship to a house-painter cancelled in order to study art. He attended Andrew Wilson's classes at the Trustees' Academy, and as an exhibitor made his debut at the Royal Insti- tution. His first contributions to the Scottish Academy were in 1 83 1, after which he was one of the most regular and prolific of the contributors with a variety of landscape subjects and sea- pieces, in which he particularly excelled. He made the first of several visits to Holland about 1831, during which he closely studied the works of the old Dutch masters, and painted numerous pictures from Dutch scenery, afterwards exhibited in Edinburgh. The sea and fishing craft attracted his attention most, and it was in this line that he chiefly distinguished himself in 1848, after which his works received high praise for their good colour, vigour of touch, and freedom of execution. His style of art may be said to be intermediate between the earlier and more recent school of landscape-painting in Scotland, and he painted almost exclusively in oil. He was elected Associate of the Scot- tish Academy in 1839, ^-nd nine years later ranked as full Acad- emician. His death occurred at his residence at Lasswade. Two of his smaller works in the Scottish National Gallery by no means represent the important position which he occupied in the history of Scottish art.^ WILLIAM CRAWFORD, A.R.S.A. Born, ; died, 2d August 1869. William Crawford is one of the members of the Scottish Acad- emy who is unrepresented in the National Gallery in Edinburgh. He was a native of Ayr, where his father enjoyed a local reputation as a poet, and having shown some evidence of a talent for art in his early youth, was placed at the Trustees' Academy, under Sir 1 National Gallery Catalogue, &c. JAMES DOCK ARTY. 389 William Allan, where he made such rapid progress as to obtain a travelling bursary for two years, for a copy from one of Etty's pictures. This time he spent at Rome, where he remained un- affected by the great works which he saw and studied there, except in regard to advancing and improving himself in the know- ledge and technique of his art, after which he returned to Edin- burgh to pursue the practice which he had already commenced of portrait and genre painting. Up till the year 1858, he conducted drawing-classes in the Trustees' Academy, and was elected an Associate of the Academy in i860. At this time he was patronised by Lord Meadowbank, aftefr which he painted some of his best works, which were chiefly of a domestic type. His largest, and probably best picture, was the Return from Maying; along with which may be mentioned a Highland Gamekeeper's Daughter, Waiting for the Ferry, the Wishing-pool, and Too Late (exhibited in the year of his death). In his manner of work he resembled Geddes, and it is characterised by a pleasing tone of colour. He did some excellent crayon portraits, and contributed occasional criticisms on art to the Edinburgh newspapers. He died in the prime of life, leaving a widow and one child. JAMES DOCHARTY, A.R.S.A. Born. 1829 (?) ; died, April 1878. Docharty was born in the calico-printing district of the Vale of Leven, at Bonhill, near Dumbarton, where his father was employed in one of the numerous works for which that locality divides its fame with football-playing. He served his apprenticeship as a pattern.- designer, which profession he pursued in Glasgow till about 1 86 1, when he took seriously to the profession of a land- scape-painter, for which he always had a strong predilection. His first studies of any consequence were made at the village of Ardenadam, a watering-place on the Holy Loch on the Clyde, after which the estabHshment of the Glasgow Institute of the Fine 390 ART IN SCOTLAND. Arts afforded him an opportunity of putting his works before tKe public. The quality of his landscapes, in which the character of Scottish landscape was simply and truthfully delineated, rapidly brought him into notice, and led to his election as an Associate of the Scottish Academy in 1877. He was a regular exhibitor at the local exhibitions, the Scottish Academy, and during the last few years of his life, at the Royal Academy, where his works were favourably noticed. In the spring of 1866, on account of his health beginning to fail, he left for a trip to Egypt, in the course of which he made some sketches of Nile scenery which he never wrought out; and afterwards spent some months at the Isle of Wight, in spite of which the pulmonary complaint from which he had been suffering terminated fatally in Glasgow in 1878. While his works rose far above mediocrity, they never aspired to or touched the subhmer aspects of nature. The scenery in the neighbourhood of his native place gave a tone to all his works, and he wisely confined himself to the delineation of a similar class of subject. The hills and lochs of Perthshire afforded him abun- dance of inexhaustible material, and this he utilised in a direct and simple manner, sometimes approaching, but seldom or never passing, the verge of poetical expression. Among his most suc- cessful works were — the Haunt of the Red Deer, the Head of Loch Lomond at Ardlui, the Trosachs, and the Falls of the Dochart at Killin. He was an earnest student of nature and an industrious worker, his efforts being further spurred on by the fact that his children were mostly mutes. His careful habits enabled him, with the addition of a fund realised by the sale of his remaining works and sketches after death, to provide for the future of his family. JOHN MILNE DONALD. Bom, 1819; died, 1866. Although undistinguished by Academic honours, this artist had very considerable influence in fostering the art of landscape- JAMES DRUMMOND. 391 painting, more especially in the west of Scotland. Like Docharty, he wrought almost exclusively in oil, and his pictures are char- acterised by great truth to nature, fine colour, and beauty of exe- cution. A keen observer, he probably reverenced nature too deeply to use any liberties, and hence his works may be said to yield that amount of pleasure which accords with the appreciation of nature possessed by the spectator. His best works are those of a smaller size ; he saw too keenly to paint to be seen at a distance, and he saw too wisely to paint anything but what con- veyed the impression without the slavish following of nature. Ideality and impressionism formed no part of his creed, and for him did not exist. He selected from but never rejected nature, and what he selected he rendered faithfully and lovingly. To take Donald at his best, as an executant he is unapproached by any of his predecessors and by few of his successors. He was brought early in his youth from Nairn to Glasgow, where he gained some little knowledge of art, and after his twenty- first year spent about four years in London, finally settling in Glasgow, painting panels for wall decorations and contributing to local exhibitions. His works, like those of many other artists, were not appreciated till after his death, and although he had to be satisfied with a comparatively small remuneration for his work, his pictures are now eagerly sought after, more especially by local collectors. He was a frequent contributor to the Edinburgh and Glasgow exhibitions up till his death, which occurred after his mind had given way. JAMES DRUMMOND, R.SA. Born, 1816; died, 13th August 1877. This eminent painter of Scottish history and ge7ire was the son of an Edinburgh merchant, and may be said to have breathed the very air of antiquity from his birth, which occurred in the old house in the Canongate once occupied by John Knox. After leaving school he was employed by Captain Brown, the omitholo- 392 ART IN SCOTLAND. gist, to draw and colour illustrations for his books, during which time he attended the Trustees' Academy under Sir William Allan. He began his professional career by teaching drawing, and in 1835 ^-t the Scottish Academy his first exhibited picture appeared, Waiting for an Answer, From this date onwards he was a regu- lar contributor to the same exhibitions, his last work being the Printing-office of Andrew Hart, the famous Scottish typographer. An enthusiastic student of Scottish history and Scottish archae- ology, he painted and drew almost nothing else, and while his works show no great evidence of fancy or imagination, they will always retain their interest and value, not only as accurate representations of Scottish historical incidents, but also as reliable registers of the costume and other antiquarian characteristics of the people in bygone times. In these respects he was possessed of great knowledge, and bestowed the utmost pains on his work. Among his most important paintings may be mentioned the Porteous Mob, a scene in old Edinburgh crowded with figures, and painted under a broad night-effect, illuminated by a fire in the street : the main incident is the crowd bearing forward their victim to the dyer's pole converted into a gallows, the foreground being filled by groups of terrified citizens, prominent among which is represented the incident related by a lady who, in going to a party, had her chair stopped by some one dressed as a baker, whose high-bred manners were inconsistent with his disguise. This picture, which was painted in 1855, was engraved for the Scottish Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts, and is now in the Scottish National Gallery. It was preceded by his John Knox bringing home his Second Wife, and was succeeded in 1856 by Edinburgh after the Battle of Prestonpans. His next important picture was Montrose being driven to Execution, exhibited in 1859. It is rather larger than the Porteous Mob, being over six feet in length, and was bequeathed by the artist to the Scottish National Gallery. The principal feature in the picture is the figure of the gallant Marquis, who had been betrayed by one of his former followers, bound and seated in JAMES DRUMMOND. 393 Highland costume on the executioner's cart, halting in front of Moray House, towards the crowded balcony of which the Marquis is looking defiantly, and from whence Argyll, Lorn, and others, gloated over the degradation of their rival. Although skilfully grouped and full of powerful dramatic interest, it is rather thinly painted, and the interest hardly sufficiently concentrated for a picture of its size. His Earliest Congregation of Scotch Reformers appeared in 1862 ; and his James IV. returning Thanks after the Gowrie Conspiracy, two years later ; to which may be added his Return of Queen Mary to Edinburgh after her Surrender to the Confederate Lords at Carberry Hill in 1567. Although his pictures were not often seen in London, he was represented in the International Exhibition there in 1862 by his Cromwell in Edinburgh ; and in 1850 his two companion pictures of Peace and War were purchased at the private view of the British Institution by the late Prince Consort, and are now at Osborne. He was elected Associate of the Scottish Academy in 1845 '» Academician in 1852 ; chosen librarian of the Academy five years later; and in 1868, on the death of W. B. Johnston, became curator of the National Gallery. He was an active and valuable member of the Society of Antiquaries in Edinburgh, where he often read interesting papers on Scottish history and antiquities, which were sometimes illustrated by beautiful drawings. Besides being a zealous collector of antiques, old prints, books, and art properties, he left a large number of accurate and artistic water- colour and pencil drawings of picturesque bits of old Edinburgh, which were afterwards published in chromo -lithography. His privately printed ' Mediaeval Triumphs and Processions ' was illus- trated by himself; his magnificent volume on Ancient Scottish Weapons is a work of the greatest beauty and importance ; to which may be added the publication after his death of his fine artistic drawings of Ancient Sculptured Stones in Scotland. He died in Edinburgh after a prolonged illness, on the 13th of Au- gust 1877, and was held in the very highest esteem by all who knew him. 394 ART IN SCOTLAND. THOMAS DUNCAN, R.S.A., A.R.A. Born, 24th May 1807; died, 25th May 1845. Although only living till the age of thirty-eight, Duncan was" one of the most brilHant painters of the Scottish school, and his works fairly entitle him to rank as one of the most eminent artists of the nineteenth century. He was born at Kinclaven in Perth- shire, and educated at the county town, during which time he showed a decided talent for art, one of his early artistic efforts being the scenery which he painted for an amateur dramatic representation of ' Rob Roy.' His parents, who looked upon art as an unprofitable occupation, endeavoured to dissuade him from following the profession, and induced him to enter the office of a lawyer in Perth. But after fulfilling his term of engagement, he left for Edinburgh, and became a student at the Trustees' Academy, where he made rapid progress in figure-drawing under Sir William Allan. The first notable result of his study was a picture of a Milkmaid, succeeded by Old Mortality and the Braw Wooer. Among his early exhibited works at the Edinburgh ex- hibitions and those of the Dilettanti Society of Glasgow were Catherine Glover listening to the Monk ; Cuddie Headrigg visit- ing Jenny Dennison, a picture as remarkable for its pleasant humour as for its delightful colour; and a portrait of John Graham (-Gilbert), the artist. At a very early age he was appointed to teach the class for colour in the Trustees' Academy, and some time later, that of drawing in the same. He exhibited very few pictures in London, but those which he did, made a very decided impression. The first shown in the Royal Academy was Prince Charles entering Edinburgh, 1840 (engraved by Bacon); followed by the Waefu' Heart, 1841 ; Deer-stalking in 1842 ; and the very noble picture of Prince Charles asleep in the Cave, in 1843, which was exhibited within the same year at the Academy in Edinburgh, and engraved by Ryall. His other contributions to the Scottish Academy's exhibition of the same year consisted of a portrait of Patrick Robertson, Water from the Fountain, and Phoebe Dawson. THOMAS DUNCAN. 395 His Anne Page and Slender was also exhibited at the Royal Academy, from which body in 1843, by the force of his own merit, he obtained the unasked honour of being elected one of its Associates. In the following year, to the same exhibition he con- tributed a Cupid and the Martyrdom of John Brown of Priesthill. Strong and effective in expression, he was never vulgar or exaggerated, and was graceful and natural in his drawing without ever degenerating into weakness. His compositions have all the dramatic interest suggested by the most perfect acting, without the least suggestiveness of the stage ; and the minor qualities of art, such as texture, are all present without being obtrusive. Great, however, as Duncan was in all these, he was still greater in colour: brilliant and sparkling, or quiet and serious, according as his subject required, he was seldom below his high level in this respect, and at his weakest was far above mediocrity. He pos- sessed a keen insight into character, and a delicate appreciation of female beauty, and consequently ranked high as a portrait- painter. Lord Cockburn speaks of his portrait of Dr Chalmers as being the best likeness of that clergyman, and adds, " There is a good print of it by Burton. It is very like him in his contempla- tive mood, but in this alone." ^ He was most successful in his portraits of ladies, of which that of Lady Stuart of AUanbank, in the Scottish National Gallery, is a favourable example. His reputation, however, rests mainly on his Scottish historical and other subject-pictures. The Entry of Prince Charles into Edin- burgh after the Battle of Prestonpans is a large work full of figures, the principal of which are portraits. The prince is said to be a good likeness of John Sheriff, the animal-painter. The figure of M'Donald, who killed Colonel Gardiner at the battle, was painted from Horatio MacCuUoch. Among the other heads are portraits of Professor Wilson, and Duncan himself; and a tipsy man, at the extreme left of the picture, is a good likeness of Robert Maxwell of Glasgow, an amateur artist and great chum of Macnee and MacCulloch. ^ Lord Cockburn's Memorials. 396 ART IN SCOTLAND. The fine picture of Prince Charles asleep in the Cave (the prince again painted from Sheriff) is perhaps the most popular of all his pictures : the tired and exhausted figure of the prince is stretched along the middle of the picture, watched over by Flora Macdonald, between them lying the long gleaming blade of a Scottish broadsword ; the background of the picture is filled in by a group of the outlaws who gave him shelter peering out into the darkness, the occupants of the cave having evidently been startled by some alarm ; one of the Highlanders rests his hand on a hound to prevent it from baying ; and the whole scene is lit by the lurid glare of a fire burning near the rudely improvised couch of the weary refugee. The figure of Flora Macdonald is said to have been painted from Mrs Hope Johnstone. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1843, where it attracted a considerable amount of attention, and stamped the artist at once as a great painter.^ His large picture of the Death of John Brown of Priesthill, the Covenanter, slain by Claverhouse, is full of pathos : the slaugh- tered carrier is lying prostrate on the ground, his wife and two children, who were spectators of the tragedy, cling to each other in the agony of grief and despair ; and the carcass of the Cove- nanter's dog lies near him, butchered by the retreating dragoons, who have left the little homestead dismantled of its roof. In consequence of ill health telling seriously upon the artist while ^ During the exhibition of this picture, Miss M. Macdonald, a lineal descend- ant of Flora, wrote very indignantly to the Editor of the ' Art Journal, ' as if the artist had in the picture cast an aspersion on the fair fame of the heroine. After accusing the painter of falsifying history, she writes, "When that lady assisted his Royal Highness to escape, she was attended only by her servant, Neil Mackeachin (ancestor to the late Marshall Macdonald), and escape was effected by these /tao alone, and the prince wore at the time a womatt's dress. If Duncan's picture be right, the Hanoverians of that day would have good reason for suspecting the virtue of Miss Macdonald ; but the fair fame of that lady was as untarnished as the bravery of the house from whence she sprung." It is needless to add to this, that if the painter was wrong in the matter of dress, it was a warrantable licence, and the treatment of the picture affords no ground for other objections. WILLIAM DYCE. 397 this work was on hand, some portions of the carrier's family were finished by his friend Macnee.^ The Scottish National Gallery is fortunate in the possession of no fewer than eight works by Duncan, including his own portrait, presented by fifty Scottish artists. Among these, his picture of Anne Page and Slender is his most representative work. " Fair Mistress Anne Page," dainty and charming, in all the bloom of her loveliness, partly leaning over the corner of a stair balustrade, invites Slender to join their party, whose affectation and awkward- ness, as he tries to excuse himself, are evidently the result of the beauty and graciousness beaming down upon him from the fair face of Mistress Anne. At an open window, in the centre of the picture, Bardolph is seen whispering some humorous remarks to Sir John Falstaif, who is leering at the scene going on outside — a particularly fine passage of colour not unlike J. Runciman's, which in the hands of a lesser artist would surely have degenerated into vulgarity. A cleverly painted dog is on the steps ; the story is further carried out by the introduction of a boy bearing a pie and a tankard ; and the whole work is glowing with the most perfect colour, and pervaded by great beauty. The Sheepshanks collection at South Kensington contains his Auld Robin Gray ; and at Taymouth Castle are the last studies upon which he was engaged, consisting of Wishart administering the Sacrament before his Execution, and Queen Victoria at Tay- mouth, painted for the Marquis of Breadalbane. He bore a high name as a patient, kind, and anxious instructor of the students who had the good fortune to be under his care, and was univer- sally esteemed. WILLIAM DYCE, H.R.S.A., R.A. Born, 1806; died, 14th February 1864. Perhaps, with the exception of Edinburgh, no city in Scotland ^ This work is now in the Glasgow Corporation Galleries ; it was presented by Mr Houldsworth, who purchased it for ;^300. The late Mr W. L. Leitch, 398 ART IN SCOTLAND. I can claim the credit of having produced so many artists as Aber- deen, the very cradle as it might be called of Scottish art, and William Dyce is one of whom the old University city has reason to be proud. His father, Dr William Dyce, F.R.S.E., was a physician, and had his son educated at the Marischal College, where his rapid progress resulted in the distinction of M.A. gained at the early age of sixteen. Having resolved to become an artist, after a little study in Edinburgh he went to London, where he was admitted as a probationer at the Royal Academy, but left owing to his dissatisfaction with the instruction there. ^ In 1825, at the age of nineteen, he went to Rome on the advice and in company with his friend Mr Day of London, where he remained nine months, which were devoted to the study of the old masters, and then returned to his native town on account of his health. At this time he painted several pictures, the most important of which was Bacchus nursed by the Nymphs of Nyssa, painted under the influence, although not in direct imitation of the works of Poussin and Titian, which he had studied in Italy, besides decorating one of the rooms in his father's house with classic arabesques. He exhibited the Bacchus in the Royal Academy in 1827, and in the following autumn returned to Rome, where he remained three years, devoted to the study of the fresco and other wall decora- tions of the early Italian masters, imbibing much of the simplicity of their works. These works at that time formed the models for study by Overbeck and the other German artists then in Rome endeavouring to revive the ancient art of fresco-painting, for intro- duction into their native country. While in the great Roman city, he painted a Madonna and Child in the old Italian purist manner, which so excited the admiration of Overbeck and his Teutonic confreres, that they proposed subscribing for its purchase, under the impression that Dyce was leaving Rome on account of want of money. the artist, presented to the same Galleries Duncan's life-size studies for the picture. The carrier is said to have been painted from an Edinburgh clergy- man, whose hands unfortunately are too literally rendered. 1 Redgraves' Century of Painters. WILLIAM DYCE. 399 He took up his residence in Edinburgh in 1829, where he re- mained eight or nine years, during which he painted a semicircular- shaped altar-piece of a Dead Christ, an Italian Beggar-Boy, a large Descent of Venus (which attracted considerable attention at the Royal Academy in 1836), Trudchen (from 'Quentin Durward'), and the important picture of Francesca da Rimini, besides the cartoon of the Judgment of Solomon, executed in competition for the prizes offered by the Trustees of the Board of Manufactures. The two last-mentioned works are in the Scottish National Gallery. The cartoon is painted in tempera, and was awarded a prize of ;!^3o. The Francesca da Rimini is in oil, nearly seven feet in length, and represents the daughter of Polenta seated on a terrace, with the deputy-lover Paolo, * ' Of evil thoughts unheeding ; " while the half-length figure of the assassin Lanciotto, stiletto in hand, formerly appeared creeping forward from the right-hand corner of the picture.^ Not finding this class of work receiving sufficient recognition, he painted several portraits, the earliest of which was a copy of one by Lawrence, of Lord Seaforth, the father of the Honour- able Mrs Mackenzie; and in 1837, was appointed to the not very remunerative position of Master of the Trustees' Academy. About this time he published a pamphlet, written in conjunction with the late Charles Heath Wilson, and addressed to Mr Maconochie Wellwood (Lord Meadowbank), suggesting a scheme for the improvement of the School of Design, in consequence of which coming under the notice of the Council of the Schools of Design in London, he was employed to act as secretary to the newly established institution at Somerset House. His connection with the Trustees' Academy thus only lasted for eighteen months. After receiving this appointment, he was authorised by the President of the Board of Trade to go on a mission of inquiry ^ The picture is now reduced in size by the removal lately of the figure of Lanciotto. 400 ART IN SCOTLAND. into the working of Schools of Design in Prussia, Bavaria France. His report, dated the 27th of April 1838, and printed two years later on the motion of Joseph Hume, led to the remodelling of similar schools in London. He resigned this office in 1843, ^^ consequence of his unwillingness to give so much of his time as the Council required, and accepted the appointment of Inspector of Provincial Schools, with a seat at the Council, which office he also resigned on the loth June 1845. ^^ the expiry of two years he again resumed his connection with the Government Department of Practical Art as it came to be called, and was appointed Master of Design, other two head-masters being also employed. He had been called in by the Council to assist in the removal of the grave defects which had already begun to creep into the system, but threw up the office after a few months' trial, disgusted with the impracticable nature of the management.^ While admitting his great abilities, which could not but be acknowledged, many have stated that he was impracticable, and would make no allowance for the opinions of those with whom he had to co-operate. Mr Richard Redgrave, who was early connected with the Department of Art, says that he was constitutionally unfitted to fill any position of joint authority; 2 but if we investigate into the abilities of those with whom he had to co-operate, it might be reasonably con- cluded that the opinions opposed to his own were worth nothing, and much of the impracticability lay on the side of those to whom he found himself in opposition. The management of the Depart- ment of Practical Art had been at no time very practical, and is at the present day even full of grave and serious deficiencies, besides being as cumbersome as it is expensive and unsatisfactory. During Dyce's connection with the Department he superintended the getting up of a series of outline drawings of ornament, which the directorate of the Schools of Design still use and recognise as a standard work. His practice as an artist, although thus seriously interfered with, was not altogether relinquished. In 1839 he exhibited at the 1 Art Journal. * Redgraves' Century of Painters. WILLIAM DYCE. 4OI Royal Academy St Dunstan separating Edwy and Elgiva ; in the following year, Titian teaching Irene de Spilembergo; in 1843, Jessica ; and in 1 841, at the British Institution, the Christian Yoke. During his residence at Rome he had acquired some practical knowledge of the art of fresco-painting, chiefly through his asso- ciation, already mentioned, with the German Overbeck and others. This knowledge was still further extended by his visit to Prussia and Bavaria, more especially in the Bavarian capital. The result of this was, that at the Westminster Hall competition he ex- hibited two heads executed in that manner, for a composition representing the Consecration of Archbishop Parker in Lambeth Palace in 1559. These two heads were mentioned by a German critic as constituting one of the most meritorious productions in the exhibition.^ This led to his selection as one of six artists who were employed to paint compartments ; among the others being Maclise, Tenniel, and Armytage. In 1846, in the House of Lords, he painted the Baptism of King Ethelbert; and in 1848 commenced a series of frescoes, which he undertook to finish in eight years, in the Queen's Robing- room; similar commissions having been given by her Majesty to Sir Charles Eastlake and several other eminent artists. Those which he finished consist of Religion, Generosity, and Courtesy, on the west wall ; and on the north wall, Mercy, and the Court of King Arthur, the subjects being taken from the medieval 'Morte d' Arthur.' The series was not completed on account of ill health and other unavoidable causes, besides being dissatisfied with the selection of subjects. The House of Commons, irritated by the delay, loudly complained, and blamed the Commission for not hastening on the work. The eight years had elapsed; the full price of the whole series had been paid to the artist, to whom the clamour was a source of great irritation, probably increased by' the wasting illness from which he was suffering. Finding his health gradually becoming worse, he wished to throw up the commission altogether, and in order to relieve his mind, offered ^ Allgemeine Zeitung, 23d July 1844. 2 C 402 ART IN SCOTLAND. to return the amount which had been overpaid in advance. A committee of the House of Commons was appointed, which overturned the engagements made between the Fine Arts Com- mission and the artists, and fully justified Dyce by increasing the remuneration of the others engaged.^ His other works in fresco are : Comus, in the Summer - House at Buckingham Palace ; Neptune giving the Empire of the Sea to Britannia, at Osborne ; and the nine decorations in All Saints' Church in Margaret Street, London. The cartoon of St Peter for the last, as well as those for the decorations in the Queen's Robing-room at Westminster Palace, are in the possession of the Royal Scottish Academy. Along with these works may be mentioned his cartoons for the stained glass in Ely Cathedral, known as the Choristers' window, the subject of which is, " Praise ye the Lord, ye angels of His " ; and another window in the Church of St Paul at Alnwick, in memory of the Duke of Northumberland, representing St Paul and St Barnabas preaching at Antioch, which was executed in Munich.2 ^ In 1846 he exhibited at the Royal Academy a Madonna and Child, which was purchased by the Prince Consort; in 1847, the sketch for the Neptune, painted in Osborne House ; in 1848, Omnia Vanitas, and a sketch of one of the Arthurian frescoes ; in 1850 and 1853, different treatments of the Meeting of Jacob and Rachel; in 1851, King Lear and the Fool; in 1855, Chris- tabel; succeeded by the Good Shepherd, Titian preparing to make his first Essay in Colouring, the Man of Sorrows, St John ^ Redgraves' Century of Painters. 2 Regarding the frescoes in the House of Lords, Dr Waagen wrote : *'The Baptism of King Ethelbert, as illustrative of Religion, by Dyce, is treated more than any of the others in the true monumental style. The com- position is admirably arranged, the heads dignified, the execution masterly, the tone as powerful as it is harmonious. Having formed the highest expec- tations of this painter from a picture of the Virgin and Child I had seen some years since in Berlin, I was the more delighted to find them thus fulfilled. Mr Dyce is eminently qualified to lay the foundation of a monumental school of art in England." — Art Treasures in Great Britain. When Dr Waagen saw this fresco, the other works by Dyce were in progress and not accessible. WILLIAM DYCE. 403 leading home his adopted Mother, and George Herbert at Bemerton, the latter being a fine work full of devotional feeling. As a pre-Raphaelite painter of landscape, he has left a prominent example in his Pegwell Bay, which was shown at the Leeds ex- hibition of 1868: a most exquisite study, full of beautiful and careful detail — flooded with daylight and a sunny effect of colour. From what has been already mentioned, the general style of his work may to some extent be understood. He drew gracefully and correctly ; his colour generally is tender and agreeable ; not often aiming at the qualities for which the great Italian colourists are so celebrated. In this respect, however, few artists are so varied in their works. Passing from his admirable full-length portrait of Dr Hamilton, rich, dark, and natural, to the infant Hercules, which strikes a key of colour midway between Rubens and Titian ; the Paul- Veronese-like treatment of the cartoon for the Judgment of Solomon ; the broad, simply painted episode of Francesca da Rimini ; or his small landscapes, — it is difficult to believe them the works of the same artist. He made some essays in etching, in which, had he pursued the practice further, he would have taken a high position. Comparatively little known are a series of exquisite small plates, illustrative of some Highland tales by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, wrought entirely with the needle, and left as the etching -ground had been cleaned off. They consist of groups of figures most delicately executed and finely drawn, with all the freedom, and more finished than many of the works, of the most esteemed professors of that ex- quisite art. Among other attainments, this distinguished artist possessed an excellent theoretical and practical knowledge of music, having been mainly instrumental in founding the Motett Society, for the practice of old church-music, which has since been incorporated with the Ecclesiological Society. He published in 1844 the * Book of Common Prayer,' with the ancient Canto Fermo set to it at the Reformation period, with an essay on that class of music. 404 ART IN SCOTLAND. for which he received a gold medal from the King of Prussia, who was about that time engaged with Von Bunsen and Neukomm in framing a liturgy for the State Church of Prussia ; and he also composed music for the old " Non Nobis," which was sung at one of the Royal Academy dinners. At the age of twenty- nine he obtained the Blackhall prize for an essay on Electro- magnetism, which it is said he wrote on his return from Rome, when he found so little encouragement in his art practice, that he thought of turning his attention to scientific pursuits ; and he also gave a masterly lecture on the theory of the fine arts in King's College, London. He was elected Royal Academician in 1848, and was a member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. After a busy life of fifty-eight years, he died in his house at Streatham in Surrey, on the 14th February 1864.^ THOMAS FAIRBAIRN. Born, 1821 ; died, October 1885. Compared with England, Scotland cannot, in the list of ceased artists, name a proportionate number of painters in water- colour. Fairbaim, who was one of these, was a native of Glas- gow, where he very early lost his father, after which his mother earned a subsistence from the profits of a spirit-shop in High Street. He was a shop-lad with Brand & Mollison, dyers; and his art education was condensed into an attendance of three months at an evening class, opened by Gilfillan, which only lasted ^ Dyce's important works are seldom offered for sale ; the following are noticed : — 1857 i860 1861 1866 1868 1873 II 1874 1877 Lear and the Fool in the Storm . Highland Ferryman . George Herbert at Bemerton Jacob and Rebecca at the Well . Christabel Trebarwith Strand (water-colour) Puckaster Cove (water-colour) . St Catherine . . . . Garden of Gethsemane (small) . George Herbert at Bemerton Sold at Foster's . Gs. los Mr Houldsworth's Collection 170 Mr Agnew's Collection 710 Sold at Christie's . 580 Do. 96 Mr J. Pender's Collection 105 Do. 100 Holmewood Collection . 310 Baron Grant's Collection 370 Do. 1040 THOMAS FAIRBAIRN. 405 for that time. So enthusiastic was he in the practice of his art, that all his spare hours were devoted to study at home, often till long after midnight. On leaving his situation, he rented a small room in Exchange Place, where his success in painting and giv- ing lessons enabled him to get married, after which he removed to West Regent Street. He left Glasgow for Hamilton about 1850, where he resided till his death, excepting an occasional excursion. His settlement at Hamilton was no doubt mainly owing to its proximity to the grand old forest of Cadzow, the magnificent oak- trees in which constitute it a perfect paradise for a painter of woodland scenery: it was a favourite haunt of many Scottish land- scape-painters, such as Horatio MacCulloch and Sam Bough, the latter of whom more particularly was an associate there of Fair- bairn. Few water-colour painters of his time excelled Fairbairn in his delineation of forest scenery ; he was a literal reproducer of nature in this form in its best aspects, and not a translator — one of the most heinous crimes in the eyes of a modern impressionist. From Hamilton he made occasional excursions to England for sketching purposes, where his works were much more appreciated and in greater demand than in Scotland. About the year 187 1 he began to suffer from a partial paralysis of the lower limbs, which incapacitated him from doing outside work, during which time he lay prostrate, always full of enthu- siasm for art, and the patience of a true Christian, resigned and cheerful under the trying circumstances. A partial recovery, after about seven years' confinement, enabled him to resume his study from nature, when he painted some of his best works- more tender in colour and softer in manipulation than his earlier pictures. Soon after the beginning of his illness, an exhibition of his works was projected by his old friends Mr John Mossman and Mr Robert Greenlees, which was eminently successful. After his death, his remaining sketches were disposed of for the benefit of his widow. He is most popularly known by his sketches of old houses and localities about Glasgow, which were published in 4o6 Aittit s£(M:^S' lithographic form. The series of his own drawings were acquired by the Corporation of Glasgow for their galleries. He painted no large pictures, and, like nearly all water-colour painters, was not successful in oil. His sudden death, hastened by fatiguing efforts in the aid of a church bazaar, occurred on the opening day of one of the exhibitions of the Water-Colour Society of Glasgow. ROBERT GAVIN, R.S.A. Born, 1827; died, 6th October 1883. H One of the Scottish artists who had a great gift of colour was Robert Gavin, a native of Leith, who studied art after his twen- tieth year, at the Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh, under Thomas Duncan. An enthusiastic art-student, he soon began to produce excellent pictures of children, with landscape backgrounds, very rich in colour, and free and accurate in drawing, one of which, the Coming Storm, was chromo-lithographed for the Art Union of Glasgow. He also at this time painted some landscapes. Some years after his election as Associate of the Scottish Academy in 1855, he visited America, and broke new ground in the por- trayal of incidents in negro life. He afterwards painted a few portraits, and further distinguished himself by such works as Christabel, Phoebe Mayflower and Joceline Jolifife (1866); Going to School, the Bathing - Pool, the Knitter (1867); Ne- gro subjects, &c. (187 1), followed by similar works in succeed- ing years. About 1875 ^^ went to the north of Africa, remaining some time at Tangiers, where the study of the natives afforded him an opportunity of indulging in his favourite scheme of colour, which was rich and glowing, more like that of a native of the peninsula than of one nurtured under the stern Scottish climate. Eight Moorish subjects sent from Tangiers to the Scottish Acad- emy in 1874 were the first results of this Southern study, the most important of which were Horse-shoeing at Tangiers, and a Moorish Girl of Tetuan. The following year his three exhibits consisted of Othello and Desdemona, Moorish Women at a JAMES W. GILES. 407 Well (a fine work), and Naaman the Leper and the little Jewish Maid. He remained at Tangiers till 1878, sending home numer- ous works similar to those mentioned, and was promoted to the rank of fiill Academician in 1 879. He was a regular and prolific contribu- tor to the Edinburgh exhibitions, but rarely to those in London. Never of very robust health, his constitution was very seriously impaired by his prolonged stay at Tangiers, and he died at his residence in Newhaven about four years after his return home, in his fifty-sixth year. His diploma picture in the Scottish National Gallery, the Moorish Maiden's First Love, is a good example of his style. JAMES W. GILES, R.S.A. Born, 1 801 ; died, 6th October 1870. One of the minor artists of Scotland was James Giles, the son of an Aberdonian, and born in Glasgow. In his youth he resided for some time in Italy, and on returning, settled in Edinburgh, where he became a member of the Royal Institution, which he quitted along with the other artists who joined the Academy in 1830, ranking then as an Academician. He painted a great variety of subjects with considerable ability, both in oil and water-colour, in connection with which his name appears regu- larly in the Scottish Academy catalogues attached to numerous works. Being a keen angler and fond of sport, he was particularly happy in rendering the sheeny glimmer and scaly surface of the watery tribe — the result of a day's good fishing, — or other kindred subjects, by which he is most favourably known. His picture of Red Deer reposing, in the Royal Scottish Academy's exhibition of 1854, was favourably commented upon; and so early as 1830, at the Royal Academy in London, he was represented by the Errand- Boy, the Brig of Balgownie, and a composition from scenery near Rome : these were sent from Aberdeen ; and in the following year, when he seems to have been living in London, to the same exhibition he contributed St Oswald's Well. He occasionally resided at Aberdeen, and at other times in 408 ART IN SCOTLAND. Edinburgh, but spent the last years of his life in the northern city, where, besides practising his art, he also taught drawing and painting, and died there in his sixty-ninth year. The Scottish National Gallery contains his picture of the Weird Wife ; and a fair portrait of Bailie Fraser, Shoemaker, hangs in the Trinity Hall of Aberdeen. He drew and painted tolerably well, but can- not be said to have ever shown any appreciation of the higher qualities of art, and was a fairly good colourist in such subjects as game and fish. SIR FRANCIS GRANT, P.R.A., R.S.A. Born, 1803; died, 5th October 1878. This eminent and fashionable portrait-painter was the fourth son of Francis Grant, laird of Kilgraston in Perthshire, and next younger brother of Lieutenant-General Sir James Hope Grant, who attained his military distinction chiefly by his services in India. He was originally educated for the Bar ; but a passionate love for art induced him to follow it as a profession, and he began seriously to study about the age of twenty-four. Previous to this he had received some instruction in Edinburgh from Alexander Nasmyth, after which he began to make copies from works by some of the old masters, notably those of Velasquez. A notice in Sir Walter Scott's Diary mentions him as dividing his time between fox-hunting and other similar sports, and painting ; and also of having formed a small collection of pictures. He soon, however, found that the fortune of a younger son would rapidly become exhausted in such expensive amusements ; and Scott mentions further, that ** he used to avow his intention to spend his patrimony, about ;^i 0,000, and again make his fortune by law." He seems soon to have fulfilled the first part of his inten- tion, but found the second not so easy, more especially as his talent did not lie in the direction of the law. After having attained some proficiency in art, he went to London, where he devoted himself to the profession with such energy, that he SIR FRANCIS GRANT. 4O9 exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1834 the Breakfast at Melton, containing twelve portrait figures, and an equestrian portrait of Captain Vandeleur of the Inniskilling Dragoons. While practising in London, he retained an establishment at Melton Mowbray, and at this time began to take a position as a society painter, taking up to some extent the place in art vacated by Lawrence, who died in 1830. In 1837, by which time he had acquired a leading position as a London portrait-painter, he exhibited Sir R. Hutton's Hounds, and the Meet of the Queen's Staghoundsj followed in 1839 by the Melton Hunt, containing thirty-six portraits — and a Shooting-party at Ranton Abbey ; and in 1 841, by an equestrian portrait of her Majesty attended by Lord Melbourne and others. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in the following year, when he exhibited his portrait of Lady Glenlyon, and in 1843 his portrait of the Queen, seated, wearing a diadem, and robed in white silk. Among his other numerous works were the Muckle Hart, a noble specimen of a stag and his doe lying behind some grey rocks ; and a portrait of the Earl of Milltown. He is by no means well repre- sented in the Scottish National Gallery by a Jew Rabbi ; and a small full-length of Sir Walter Scott formerly in possession of the old Ruthven family at Winton Castle, is esteemed an excellent likeness.^ He was elected a Royal Academician in 185 1, and succeeded Sir Charles Eastlake as president in 1866, when, in accordance with custom, he received the additional honour of knighthood. ^ His wife was niece to the Duke of Rutland, in consequence of which he had the entree to a large aristocratic circle, the ladies of which he painted with great success, as his strength lay chiefly in that branch of portraiture. He exhibited portraits of his wife. Lady Beau clerk. Lady Rod- ney, and Lord John Russell in the Paris exhibition of 1855, one of which M. Gautier characterised as "une excellente chose," and justly speaks of his work as "plus apprecid des gens du ^ Now in the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. 2 Sandby's History of the Royal Academy, &c. 410 ART IN SCOTLAND. monde que des artistes." ^ He joined the Scottish Academy from the Royal Institution in 1830, and died at Melton Mowbray, where the last few years of his life were passed in feeble health, on the 5th October 1878, at the age of seventy-five. Although occupying a prominent position in London, he contrib- uted tolerably regularly to the Scottish Academy's exhibitions. Among his exhibits there may be mentioned his portrait of Lieu- tenant-General Sir Hope Grant, painted in 1853, as Colonel of the 9th Lancers (i860) ; the Duke of Buccleuch as Captain-Gen- eral of the Royal Company of Archers, Mrs and Miss Hodg- son (1862) ; and Miss Adelaide Kemble in the character of Semiramide (1867). His portrait of Tom Hills was sold at Christie's in 1873 for 204 guineas. SIR GEORGE HARVEY, RRS.A. Born, February 1806 ; died, 22d January 1876. One of the best-known and most distinguished among the Scottish artists, born at St Ninians, near Stirling, from whence his father removed to that town in the year of his son's birth. As his early love for art did not receive any encouragement from his father, he was apprenticed to a bookseller in Stirling, with whom he remained till his eighteenth year, devoting his morning and evening hours to the practice of art. He then went to Edin- burgh, and for two years studied under Sir William Allan in that prolific nursery for young artists, the Trustees' Academy. So early as 1826 he attracted some attention at the Royal Institution, by a picture of a Village School, purchased by Lord Succoth, and joined the movement resulting in the secession of the artists from the Institution. From this time onwards he was one of the most zealous advocates in the contentions between the Academy and the Institution, extending over nearly a score of years. He was thus one of the youngest of the Associates, having been elected at the unusually early age of twenty years. To the ^ Beaux Arts en Europe. 4 SIR GEORGE HARVEY. 4II first exhibition of the Academy, so energetically and enthusias- tically got up in 1827, he contributed seven pictures, including the Leisure Hour, Disputing the Billet, the Small Debt Court, and Harrying the Byke, the last-named being the most important. The following year he exhibited six pictures, of which the prin- cipal one was the Consultation. In 1829 he was elected Acade- mician, when his three contributions were not up to his usual quality; but the following year produced the first of his series of pictures from the history of the Covenanters in The Preaching, exhibited in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, purchased by Mr E. Henderson for 100 guineas, and sold afterwards to Mr Houlds- worth for 300. The succeeding pictures of the same class spread his reputation far and wide, and by their subject and treatment especially appealed to the sympathies of his countrymen, through the medium of engraving, throughout all parts of the world where- in a wandering Scot was to be found. The Covenanter's Baptism, one of his favourite pictures, was exhibited in 1831 (engraved in mezzotint); in 1832 he exhibited the Foundling, an Old Shep- herd, and a Village School (not well engraved by Bromley) ; in 1833, Saturday Afternoon, and the Village Schoolmaster; and in 1834, the Collection-Plate, Boys with a Burning-Glass, and He paid too much for his Whistle. His Curlers, sold in 1835, ^-nd engraved by Howison, was and still is of almost equal popularity with his Covenanting subjects; his reputation was still further augmented by his numerous succeeding works. For about ten years, from 1839, he painted under very great disadvantages. During an excursion into the country he was thrown out of a gig and fell on his head, in consequence of which he long laboured under such frequent depressions of spirit, severe pains in the head, and failing eyesight, that work yielded him no pleasure. About 1848, after apparently exhausting every remedy that could be applied, including homoeopathy and hydro- pathy, besides a few months' holiday in Italy, he turned his picture of Columbus, unfinished, to the wall, saying that he would never paint more — his work was done. The entreaties of his 412 ART IN SCOTLAND. friend Sir J. Noel Paton, however, induced him to consult a Dr Beveridge, with the happy result that he was cured of incipient con- gestion of the brain, enabling him soon to resume his work with his former enthusiasm. The principal pictures painted immediately preceding his accident were the Battle of Drumclog, and Shake- speare before Sir Thomas Lucy (1837), the latter bought by the Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland for ;^36o, for whom it was engraved by R. Graves, A.R.A. ; and Bunyan in Bedford Jail (1838), purchased by Alderman Moon for 400 guineas. Among his succeeding works were the Com- munion (1840); Sabbath Evening (1841); and the solemn and impressive Highland Funeral (1844), in which a coffin containing the body of a shepherd, accompanied by his collie, is being con- veyed in a slightly made cart drawn by a worn-out old pony, followed by a train of mourners, across a moor, in a dull, still autumn day. This was sold in the exhibition for ;^25o. An Incident in the Life of Napoleon, in which the Emperor is rep- resented passing across a battle-field by moonlight (1843), found an appreciative purchaser in Mr W. Miller in the Royal Academy, being his first work exhibited there, and was engraved by Mr Miller. In 1846 he made a very decided impression in London by his First Reading of the Bible in the Crypt of Old St Paul's. The time selected is the spring of 1540, soon after Bonner's in- stallation as Bishop of London, and while Cromwell was still in power. The Bible, chained to a pillar, is being read aloud by Porter (who died while imprisoned in Newgate for his boldness) in the common tongue to an assemblage of people of all ages and conditions. This fine work was sold to Mr Clow for ;^4oo, in addition to ^£'300 for the copyright to Mr Graves, who had it engraved in line. His exhibits at the Royal Academy were con- tinued by Quitting the Manse (1847), sold for 600 guineas, with 300 more to Graves for copyright; Blowing Bubbles (1848), an admirable picture, which the hanging committee were justly com- plained of for placing in the octagon room, and which sold for j£s6$. Owing to his illness there was a year or two's interruption, SIR GEORGE HARVEY. 413 when his name again occurs in the Royal Academy catalogue, attached to the Wise and Foolish Builders (1851), hung high up, over a doorway; Dawn revealing the New World to Columbus (1852), bought by the Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland, and placed by them in the Scottish National Gallery after having it engraved in mezzotint for the subscribers. His last exhibit in London was the Bowlers (1853), bought by Gambart for ;£'4oo. During the following years his pictures at the Royal Scottish Academy consisted chiefly of landscapes, varied, however, by Bunyan and his Daughter (1857), Dr Guthrie preaching (1859), Mrs Napier at her Spinning-wheel (1862), and the Penny Bank (1864).! His style of work is well known to all frequenters of picture- galleries, and also from the widely circulated engravings of many of his works. His pictures of children are full of innocent child- like beauty, freely drawn and exquisitely coloured. His many figure-subjects tell their story well, and are all imbued with the true character of the Scottish people, whose history and customs he so much delighted in dehneating. The landscapes which he painted are of great beauty, sweetness of colour, and a broad simplicity, his subtle treatment giving to the most simple subjects a poetic sentiment of the highest order. While many of his works still retain their pristine beauty, it is to be regretted that the too free use of bituminous colours, in order to obtain depth and rich- ness of surface, has proved the ruination of many others : to this has to be further added the injudicious use of varnish, by which some have become distorted remnants of what they once were. He often spoke, especially regarding his picture of Argyll before his Execution, of this indiscretion on the part of owners and ignorant picture-dealers and cleaners. In the year 1864 he was elected to the high position of president of the Academy, over whose interests he had so long and so care- fully watched, and in the affairs of which he had vigorously assisted to foster its permanent establishment. He was a Fellow 1 Art Journal, &c., &c. 414 ART IN SCOTLAND. of the Royal Society ; and besides contributing occasionally to its Transactions, published in 1870 an interesting sketch of the early history of the Scottish Academy. His portrait, head-size, by the late Mr Robert Herdman, painted in 1874, was gifted by that eminent artist to the collection of the Royal Scottish Academy.^ ROBERT HERDMAN, R.S.A. Born, 1829; died, loth January 1888. The name of this eminent artist first appears as an exhibitor in the Royal Scottish Academy catalogue for 1850, attached to a subject from Longfellow's " Excelsior." He was a son of the minister of Rattray in Perthshire, and brother of the Rev. Dr Herd- man of Melrose, and was at that time studying at the University of St Andrews, with a view to following the profession of his father. His early liking for art having predominated over that for the ministry, he went to Edinburgh in 1852, in which year he ex- hibited his first portrait — that of the daughter of Mr David Rhind — and also became a student at the life -class of the Trustees' Academy, which was then under the able direction of Robert Scott Lauder, whose style of work visibly affected that of the pupil. As a student he was as successful as enthusiastic, and after a year's study, gave promise of his future excellence by obtaining a prize for a drawing of John the Baptist preaching in the Wilder- ness, shown at the Academy exhibition of 1853. The painting of this in the following year, along with a Magdalene and a Samson, brought him prominently into notice. The theological studies which he had previously pursued, probably suggested the Scrip- tural subjects which he then painted. In 1854 his exhibit at the ^ The following are a few instances of the prices realised at sales by Sir George Harvey's pictures : At Mr Clow's sale in 1852 — Highland Funeral, ;^II5, los. ; Scotch Scenery, jC^g, 5s.; Glen Enterkin, £7;^, los. ; Argyll before his Execution, ^42 ; the Curlers, ;^I27, is. ; First Reading of the Bible in St Paul's, £367, los. ; Wise and Foolish Builders, ;^2i5, 5s. ; Children blowing Bubbles in Greyfriars' Churchyard, £367, los. At Mr Houldsworth's sale in i860— the Covenanters' Preaching, ;^320. ROBERT HERDMAN. 415 Academy was Jesus and Martha on their way to Lazarus's Tomb ; and in the same year he was awarded the Keith prize and bronze medal of the Academy. In 1855 he exhibited a portrait of his mother, at which date he went to Italy, and in consequence was not represented at the Academy exhibition of the following year, the only instance which occurred in this respect up till his death. During his stay on the Continent the Academy complimented him by a commission to make a drawing from one of Masaccio's works in Florence, which, along with copies of Tintoretto's Massacre of the Innocents and Meeting of Elizabeth and Mary, Raphael's Triumph of Galatea, Perugino's Agony in the Garden, two Madonnas by Leonardo da Vinci, and two frescoes by Philippino Lippi, are now the property of the Academy. In addition to these he made a number of other copies from the old masters in the Italian galleries, many in water-colours, in which branch of the art he attained a high degree of excellence. On his return from Italy, Italian subjects constituted his chief contributions to the Academy, of which he was then elected an Associate, followed four or five years later, in 1863, by his eleva- tion to the full rank of Academician on the death of George Simson. During his comparatively brief career he contributed about two hundred pictures to the exhibitions of the Acad- emy : these included his best works, many of which formed the chief attractions of the exhibitions, and he was often rep- resented by as many as six works at a time. His diploma picture. La CuUa, a very lovely piece of colour, was painted in Italy and shown in Edinburgh in 1857. Among his more prom- inent works are the Captive of Lochleven, 1567, exhibited in 1864; After the Battle, a scene in Covenanting Times (1871), a magnificent work full of deep pathos, now in the Scottish National Gallery, where it was deposited by the Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland, which had commis- sioned the picture; the Interview between Jeanie and Effie Deans appeared in 1873; ^.nd his reputation was very largely increased by his Conventicle Preacher arrested and brought 4l6 ART IN SCOTLAND. before a Court of Justice, the largest picture he ever painted, ex- hibited in 1874. In the Royal Academy exhibition in London (where he had for many years previously been represented by portraits), his First Conference between Mary Stuart and John Knox at Holyrood appeared in 1875, ^^^ was re-exhibited in the Scottish Academy in the following year. His Charles Edward seeking Shelter in the House of an Adherent appeared in the Edin- burgh exhibition of 1879, along with Gertrude of Wyoming, and was shown at the Royal Academy in 1880 ; and his somewhat less successful St Columba rescuing a Captive was exhibited in the Scottish Academy in 1883. He was particularly happy in his smaller pictures, many of which, consisting of single figures such as his Hero (1863), are very remarkable for refinement and delicacy of form and colour. He occasionally drew upon Scottish song for his subjects, such as the Rowan-Tree (R.S.A., 1867), Lord Ullin's Daughter (R.S.A., 1879), and Auld Robin Gray (R.A., 1879); while his summers, occasionally spent in the island of Arran, were productive of numer- ous attractive works, consisting of small rustic figures, and very ex- quisite water-colour studies of sea- weed and common objects of the sea-shore, which are eagerly sought after by picture collectors. As a portrait-painter he occupied one of the most prominent positions in Scotland, and a glance at the Royal Scottish and Royal Academy catalogues will testify to the extent of his practice. He was most successful in portraits of ladies, among which may be mentioned those of Mrs Shand and Lady Anna Maria Stirling- Maxwell (1868), Mrs Bruce-Gardyne (R.A., 1870), Lady Susan Burke (R.A., 187 1), and Mrs J. H. Buchanan, and her sister Miss Anne C. Brodie. The defect of his male portraits may be said to consist of a want of strength and solidity, and he was accordingly less successful in his whole-lengths than heads. Among the latter may be mentioned those of Sir George Harvey, P.R.S.A. (R.A., 1874 ; R.S.A., 1875), Thomas Carlyle (R.A., 1876), Sir J. Noel Baton (R.A., 1880), Dr David Laing, LL.D., and D. O. Hill, R.S.A., now in the Royal Scottish Academy. ROBERT HERDMAN. 417 He was rendered exceedingly popular by a series of six pictures illustrating Henry Glassford Bell's ' Queen Mary,' which were re- produced in photography by the Glasgow Art Union. Somewhat sketchily painted, they were characterised by his usual qualities of grace and refinement of form and beauty of colour. This class of work, indeed, may be said to have been in accordance with the real inclination of his mind ; and it has been truly remarked, that had he been less employed as a portrait-painter, he might have risen to the very highest position as a painter of historic and poetic sub- jects. Those of the latter class which he executed were almost entirely derived from the literature of his native land. A writer in the ' Scottish Leader ' two days after his death remarks : " The technical side of his painting evidenced the same powers and shortcomings as were characteristic of its mental side. Full of knowledge suitable to the purpose in hand, his brush-work was always suave and apparently effortless, which gave the spectator a sense of his never being worried or flurried, but always at his ease. On the other hand, tried by the more scientific standards of the modern French school of painting, his technique would be found wanting in depth, in solidity, and in true rendering of texture and surfaces. Much, of course, of this was due to the school in which he had been trained, with its Scotch traditions. Ultimately the great charm of Mr Herdman's work was the re- alisation of his natural and inborn sense of the beautiful, which can negatively be determined in saying that it was impossible for him to produce any work tainted with meanness or vulgarity in spirit, and might be positively determined by the harmonious completeness of those pictures in which he set himself to express this his great tendency." Personally he was a man of high culture, with great appre- ciation of the possibilities of his art in Scotland. He occupied the position of vice-president of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland ; was a- member of the Hellenic Club ; and as presi- dent for some years of the Edinburgh Art Club, took much interest in the younger members of his profession. His manner 2 D 41 8 ART IN SCOTLAND. on a first acquaintance had a slight feeUng of reserve, which, how- ever, soon wore off, when the true man of genius was evidenced by his modesty, intellect, and open and candid manner. He died suddenly in his studio, which was attached to his house at 12 Bruntsfield Crescent, from what was supposed to be an affection of the heart, and had presided on the previous even- ing at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries. His son, Mr Duddingston Herdman, gives promise of success in the profession in which his father was so distinguished. DAVID OCTAVIUS HILL, R.S.A. Born, i8o2 ; died, 17th May 1870. Few men have done so much to advance art in their native country as this well - known landscape - painter. *' During the checkered and sometimes stormy period while our Academy, now so happily and firmly established among us, was contending for existence, and afterwards for position and independence, he held the prominent position of secretary. His zeal amounted to enthusiasm for the cause of the Academy and of Scottish art, and was never wanting. He never wavered under any amount of difficulty or discouragement; and along with such allies as Sir William Allan, (Sir) George Harvey, now the president, and Mr Thomas Hamilton, the architect of the High School, who was called the Achilles of the Academy, Mr Hill fought the battles of the Academy with a singleness of purpose, and a devotion of time and talent, which in effect impaired his efforts towards attaining the first-rate place in art otherwise within reach of his fertile and felicitous genius." ^ In such terms his services in the cause of advancing the posi- tion of art in Scotland were recognised by the public press on the day after his death. Apart from this, he led a quiet and unevent- ful life in his home at Calton Hill, the familiar resort for many years of some of the best and most cultured people in Edinburgh. ^ Courant, i8th May 1870. DAVID OCTAVIUS HILL. 419 His father was a bookseller in Perth, where the artist's boyish efforts in art induced his parents to send him to Edinburgh to study at the Trustees' Academy under Andrew Wilson, and where he made rapid progress. His earliest productions were a series of views in Perthshire lithographed by himself, and his first appearance on the walls of an exhibition was in 1823, when he exhibited some landscapes. Subsequently to this he attempted figure - painting, when he produced several domestic pictures, among which were a Scotch Wedding and a scene from the * Gentle Shepherd,' but soon after returned to pursue the path on which he first entered, and his name is now exclusively connected with pictures of Scottish scenery, more especially the localities referred to in the works of Robert Burns, or places with which the poet was associated. For about forty years he was secretary to the Academy, and in 1869 resigned the position on account of ill health, when, in recognition of his services, the members resolved to continue his salary for life, at the same time commissioning his portrait from Mr Herdman for their library. During all these years he was a regular contributor to the Academy's exhibitions, the most prominent among his pictures being a little Lonely Shore, and the Valley of the Nith, in 1850 ; Fotheringay Castle and a Sunset on a Highland Shore with the Departure of an Emigrant Ship, in 1852 ; Ruins of Dunfermline Palace, in 1854 \ Dunsinane, in 1855; and his well-known large Windsor Castle. From the sparkling nature of their effects, his works were remarkably well adapted for the purpose of engraving, and his name has been spread far and wide by the sixty illustrations to the 'Land of Burns,' published by the Messrs Blackie, a work of very great merit. The originals of these, painted in oil, were exhibited in Edinburgh in 1851-52, and it was the intention of the painter and publishers to present them towards the formation of a Bums gallery near the poet's birthplace; but it was not carried out, on account of funds "for the necessary building not being forth- coming. He was the first to suggest the idea of the Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland, which was 420 ART IN SCOTLAND. heartily taken up by his friends John Steell, R.S.A., and Sheriff Henry Glassford Bell, who devised its constitution in the form of an Art Union. The last - mentioned gentleman was the first to make the scheme publicly known, which thus became the parent of the numerous progeny since appearing in Scotland. ^ The late Thomas Hill, who was the artist's brother, was a print- ^ seller in Edinburgh, and it was owing to the efforts of David that he was induced to extend and develop his business by publishing a large number of beautiful and costly engravings. Among other pursuits which he followed in addition to his professional labours, he practised the recent invention of photography, and in conjunc- tion with his friend Mr R. Adamson, assisted in developing the Talbotype process, in which he produced many artistic results, among which were portraits of some of his brother artists, such as Sir William Allan, and Henning the Elgin-frieze restorer — both remarkable for their picturesque treatment and character. These were published in 1844. M In 1866 he completed his large and laborious picture of the Signing the Deed of Demission and Act of Separation, which i was suggested by and commemorative of the Disruption in the H Church of Scotland, by which nearly 500 clergymen, on a point of principle, voluntarily resigned their manses and livings as ministers of the EstabHshed Kirk in 1843. The picture includes 470 por- traits, and represents the first meeting of the Free Church in Tanfield : it is now in the Hall of the Free Church in Edinburgh. Such a work afforded no scope for artistic treatment, and Sam Bough used during its progress to indulge in his practical joking, by making it known privately to everybody, that he had composed a poetical description of the picture, to be published simultaneously with its exhibition. The sum of ;£"i5oo was subscribed for its purchase, by adherents of the Free Church mainly, ;^i2oo of which consisted of ;£ioo subscriptions; and this sum Hill received, he retaining the copyright of the picture, which was reproduced by the autotype process of photography. Regarding the value of this picture, Sir George Harvey set it down DAVID OCTAVIUS HILL. 42 1 at 3000 guineas. As considerable dissent from this was expressed, Sir George's letter, addressed to Mr John Miller of Millfield as representing the committee, was made public, in which he thus explains himself: "The work has been in hand rather more than twenty-one years ; but say ten of these have been occupied upon it, which is, I consider, a moderate estimate, and in the circum- stances the price, exclusive of exhibition and copyright, which Mr Hill reserves, could not possibly be less than 3000 guineas. This sum, supposing it had been paid by instalments during the progress of the work, would have been 300 guineas a-year, less expenses — surely a moderate return for the exercise of the talents of so gifted a person as Mr Hill during the very best period of his life." He was in 1840 appointed by the Government one of the Commissioners of the Board of Manufactures in Scotland, which has the control of the School of Art and the National Gallery, and died on the 17th of May 1870.^ There is no Scottish artist so many of whose works have been engraved. The greater number of them were painted with this object in view, and consequently are less valuable as paintings than as subjects for interpretation by the engraver. In addition to his numerous book illustrations, his View of Edinburgh from the Castle, and his Windsor Castle, both engraved on a large scale, are familiar to all. In personal appearance he was remarkable for his striking, classical, and manly features, perpetuated by Mr Herdman's portrait, and the marble bust executed by his talented and fondly attached wife, the sister of Sir J. Noel Paton. "As a friend and companion, he will ever be remembered by those who knew him as one possessed of admirable talents for promoting the happiness of the society in which he moved, combining kindness, wit, and humour, with an innate modesty which never allowed him to say anything hard or uncharitable of any one." ^ ^ Art Journal, &c. 2 Contemporary obituary notice. 422 ART IN SCOTLAND. JOHN ADAM HOUSTON, R.S.A. Born, December 1802 ; died, December 1884. The ancestors of this artist are said to have belonged for up- wards of two centuries to the county of Renfrew, where they owned a small property near the village of Houston, the latter being then connected with manufactures, such as weaving, bleaching, &c., which many years ago deserted that village. His father had some taste and ability for art, was related to the artistic Nasmyth family, and removed early in life to North Wales, where John was born on Christmas-day at Gwydr Castle, the seat of Lord Willoughby de Eresby. On the return of the family to Scotland eight years later, they settled near to Dalkeith, at the school of which he received his education. Rather against the wish of his father, he entered the Trustees' Academy, then under Sir William Allan, with a view to following art as a profession, and after three years of successful study went to London to further improve himself by the superior facilities afforded there. During his absence from Scotland he studied for a short time in Paris and Germany, dividing his time between landscape, figure, and portrait painting, and also practising in water-colours. At the age of twenty-four he exhibited his first picture, Don Quixote in his Study, at the Royal Institution, and two years later his French Goatherds, at the Scottish Academy. On account of family matters he returned to Edinburgh in 1841, in which year he exhibited there his Soldiers of Cromwell disputing on the Scriptures, which was purchased by the Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland. In the same year his Prisoner appeared on the walls of the Royal Academy in London, succeeded in the next by his Swiss Soldier of the Sixteenth Century. At this date he was elected an Associate of the Scottish Academy, where he exhibited an Incident in the Crusades, and the Release of Protestant Prisoners from the Tower. A large portion of the year 1844 was passed in Paris, where he contemplated joining as draughtsman a proposed JOHN ADAM HOUSTON. 423 scientific expedition to the East — a project, however, which was never carried into effect. Among the numerous pictures which he painted in the succeed- ing years may be noted, the Prodigal Son, the Deserted Hall, the Secreting of the Regalia of Scotland, and the Good Samaritan, the latter being his diploma picture, deposited in the Scottish National Gallery on his election as full Academician in 1845. ^^ the latter part of the year 1855, ^n account of the state of his health, he went to Italy accompanied by his wife and daughter, passing about a year between the beautiful cities of Pisa, Florence, and Siena. The fruits of this journey were contributed to the succeeding exhibitions of the Scottish Academy, and a large part of the following year spent in the Scottish Highlands produced a similar result. The bronchial affection from which he suffered so much in the harsh Scottish climate induced him to remove to London about 1858, where he remained till his death at Upper Phillimore Place in Kensington.^ He was a regular contributor of numerous works to the Scottish Academy's exhibitions, besides exhibiting at the Royal Academy in London, at which perhaps his most successful work was Newton investigating Light, in 1870. His time was pretty equally divided between landscape and figure painting, almost entirely in oil, varied by an occasional portrait. His figure - pictures are generally of a moderate size, carefully wrought out, with brilliant and rather positive colour, and are often suggestive of the power of executing larger and more important compositions than those with which he contented himself. His most favourite subjects were troopers, &c., from the stern Cromwellian and Cavalier- ing Prince Rupert period, executed with a smooth and sometimes too careful finish. Among his landscapes may be mentioned a large and very fine View of the Cathedral of Glasgow, excel- lent in every respect, which was engraved on a large scale by Richardson. ^ Art Journal, &c. 424, ART IN SCOTLAND. JAMES HOWE. Born, 30th August 1780; died, nth July 1836. Howe was a much earlier artist than any of those among wl he makes his appearance here. Although he cannot be said to have had any influence on the development of Scottish art, he was too well known in his time to be omitted in the list of native artists. He was a clever animal-painter, and eldest son of the Rev. William Howe, a poor parish clergyman in the county of Peebles. As a youth he was so fond of drawing, that not un- frequently his father, on laying out the manuscript of his sermon before him on the pulpit, found the margins profusely decorated with animals of every conceivable species. This, together with the boy's passionate and absorbing love for art, caused him to be sent at a very early age with a rather incomplete education to Edinburgh, where he was apprenticed to the Norries, to whom he was related. One of his first performances with the brush was whitewashing the interior of the Old Tolbooth ; but he soon so far developed his talent, that in a very few years his leisure hours were utilised by a Mr Marshall in painting on a panorama at the remunerative rate of five shillings per hour. At the close of his apprenticeship, with little or no art training, he began to practise as an animal-painter so successfully, that he was patronised by the Earl of Buchan, who has been already referred to as an amateur in art, and settled down in a house in Greenside Street, the window of which he decorated with a clever deceptively painted figure of a piebald pony, by way of an advertisement. On the advice of Lord Buchan he went to London, bearing introductory letters to some of the Royal household, and painted portraits of some of the horses in the Royal stud, but received no further encouragement, as George IH. was then prevented from looking at pictures on account of a disease in his eyes. Being thus dis- appointed he returned to Edinburgh, and besides other works, painted for Lord Buchan an Assembly of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries with the Earl, who was one of its founders, from a JAMES HOWE. 425 design furnished by David Allan, and finished by Alexander Carse. At the age of thirty he had obtained a good position in his branch of art, and his cattle-portraits and animal-subjects were purchased by many of the nobihty and.^gentry in Scotland. At this time he painted a series of paintings, representing the different breeds of cattle in Scotland, some of which were engraved in the Agricultural article in the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' and subsequently a Hawk- ing-Party, very popular in its engraved form : all his animals were remarkable for their character and nice discrimination in those features and forms so much appreciated by connoisseurs in cattle- breeding. In illustration of his rapidity of execution, it is told that, being advised to paint a panoramic view of the Battle of Waterloo, he visited the field, and finished within a month after his return, a panorama measuring 4000 feet of canvas, well covered with incidents in the fight : this was such a success in Edinburgh and Glasgow, that during a large portion of the time while it was on exhibition, the painter's half of the drawings amounted to ;£i5 each night. He spent about two years in Glasgow, and unfortunately became so unsteady that he was preyed upon, and associated with that class of people too lazy to work, and who only look upon money as a means of administer- ing to intemperance. On his return to Edinburgh he was employed by Mr Maule, afterwards Lord Panmure, at Brechin Castle for four months, where his health was as much improved as his habits, and, for the first time in his life, had his name in a bank ledger, credited with several hundred pounds, — a state of matters, however, which did not long continue. After a short visit to his native village, made in the hope that his health might benefit, he died at Newhaven from the rupture of a blood-vessel, in his fifty-sixth year. Some facts in the life of this unfortunate artist suggest the supposition that his improvidence, irresolution, and unsteadiness were the result of the mental weakness which, in the case of his brother, developed into insanity. In instance of this, while pass- ing through London in a hackney-coach in company with Carse 426 ART IN SCOTLAND. and another, the two latter happened to talk about apoplexy, and Howe, imagining himself affected, insisted on stopping the cab till his friends pumped cold water on his neck and shoulders. At fl another time, when enjoying a visit to Colinton with some ladies and gentlemen, he went to the village cobbler to get his shoe repaired, which had got accidentally torn : not reappearing, his flj friends became anxious, and after some searching, found him engaged in a carouse with the mender of soles. Many an inn- keeper's bill was paid by poor Howe with a sketch done on the spot, even at a time when some of the most celebrated painters gladly availed themselves of the aid of his brush in putting cattle into their pictures, his skill being too much a part of his nature ever to fail. During some of his last years spent at Newhaven, he entered upon the task of illustrating the * British Domestic Animals,' to be engraved by Lizars, and abandoned for want of success, after a few parts had been published.^ An anecdote illustrative of his humour is still related of him, that on one occasion a farmer wishing to have some cattle painted, knocked at his door and inquired of Howe " If this was whaur the bruit- penter lived?" on which Howe invited him to enter, asking at the same time if he wished his portrait taken. WILLIAM B. JOHNSTONE, R.S.A. Born, 1804; died, 5th June 1868. This artist, who was born and practised in Edinburgh, was one of the most active members of the Royal Scottish Academy, of which he was for many years treasurer, and also one of the trustees. During the earlier part of his life he followed the pro- fession of a solicitor ; but his love for art, which was still further cultivated by associating with the artists of Edinburgh, induced him to relinquish his earlier profession for that of an artist, and he was thus prevented from receiving the full benefit of an early training in the elements of the art. He never at any time con- 1 Extracted from Chambers's Journal, 1839. WILLIAM B. JOHNSTONE. 42/ fined his practice to one branch of painting, and he evinced very considerable talent in landscape as well as historical pieces, besides being possessed of an intimate critical knowledge of the works of ancient and modern artists. In his style he was at first a follower of Wilkie, but abandoned that after his visit to Rome in 1843, when he attempted to imitate the severer style of the earlier Italian masters, from which he subsequently reverted to one less ambitious and characterised by a higher degree of finish. He did his best work at this period, although it cannot be said that he ever showed any great power of hand, and was generally inclined to be rather dry in his execution. Latterly, and probably unconsciously, he fell under the influence of the great works of John Phillip, which were then coming into prominence. Besides being an excellent artist, he was fond of literary pur- suits and antiquarian studies, and was an intimate friend of the late eminent David Laing, to whose joint efforts the people of Scotland are indebted for the restoration of the famous Holyrood altar-piece to the gallery of that Royal palace. Among other literary work, he was the anonymous contributor (possibly jointly with Dr Laing) of two interesting articles on Scottish and English art to the ' North British Review,' and compiled the biographical catalogue of the Scottish National Gallery, of which he was ap- pointed curator in 1858, and wherein is deposited his excellent picture of the Scene in Holyrood after the Death of Rizzio, which was exhibited in the Royal Scottish Academy in 1855. He was elected an Associate in 1840, about three years before his visit to Rome, and received the honour of full Academician in 1848. His death occurred after nearly a year's illness, which latterly assumed a most painful form, with an almost fatal cer- tainty, which, however, did not prevent him from working at his art till within a few days of his death. The last works which he exhibited were a Waterfall in Glen Nevis, and Female Industry, in 1867; and the "Novel of the Day, 1753," in the year of his death. He left a valuable and interesting collection of antiquities, con- sisting of old armour and other objects. In noticing his death, 428 ART IN SCOTLAND. one of the Edinburgh papers remarked that the Scottish Acad never had a member more devoted to its interests or more uni- versally useful to it j and that even when on his deathbed, in spite of all his bodily pain and weakness, whenever the Academy or National Gallery was mentioned, he entered with as much spirit into all their interests as if nothing were the matter with him.^ JAMES ECKFORD LAUDER. R.S.A. Born, 1812; died, 29th March 1869. One of two talented brothers who were both born in Edinburgh. He was a student at the Trustees' Academy under Sir William Allan and his able coadjutor and assistant Thomas Duncan, after which he studied in Rome for about five years, where he was a most industrious worker, and on his return to Edinburgh was elected an Associate of the Academy there in the year 1839. To his important pictures of Wisdom, and the Unjust Steward, he devoted nearly five years of his life, the latter of which gained a ;£2oo premium at the Westminster Hall com- petition of 1847. He afterwards produced many good works, some of considerable importance, among which may be mentioned his Ferdinand and Miranda, in 1848; Lorenzo and Jessica, 1849; a Maiden's Reverie, 1852 ; a Money-lender, Walter Scott and Sandy Ormiston, and BaiHe Macwheeble at Breakfast,^ 1854; and Sir Tristram teaching the Harp to La Belle Isoude. The second-last mentioned of these, engraved for the subscribers of the Scottish Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts, is a capital picture, full of quiet quaint humour, and as an engraving, divides his popularity with his beautiful picture of the Ten Virgins, exhibited in the Scottish Academy in 1855, and engraved for the same Association on a large scale by Lumb Stocks. Not finding his figure-subjects sufficiently appreciated by picture- buyers, he latterly turned his attention to a greater extent than 1 Art Journal, &c. 2 Sold with Gibson-Craig collection in 1887 for ;^53, lis. ROBERT SCOTT LAUDER. 429 he had hitherto done to landscape-painting, varied by an occa- sional portrait. Besides Scottish scenes, he drew largely upon his sketches made while in Italy, and these constituted the greater number of his exhibits at the Scottish Academy during the few years prior to his death. Probably the most important and finest figure-picture (and this was his tiue forfe) painted prior to his death, was Michael Angelo nursing his old and faithful servant Urbino, exhibited in i860. He was possessed of con- siderable power and lofty aspirations, and it is supposed that the want of substantial recognition preyed upon his mind, and so tended to shorten a life begun full of lofty enthusiasm and earnest endeavour. He was elected an Academician of the Scottish Academy in 1846, his diploma picture to their Gallery being Hagar beside the Fountain, a picture fully 4 feet in length, but not one of his best works. ROBERT SCOTT LAUDER, R.SA. Born, 1803; died, 22d April 1869. The elder brother of the last-mentioned artist, also born at Silvermills, Edinburgh, early developed a strong love for art, and a tendency towards following it as a profession in spite of obstruc- tions thrown in his way at home. When very young, he attempted some designs from the 'Arabian Nights' Entertainments'; and about the same time having made the acquaintance of David Roberts, who was his senior by seven years, and then a house-painter in Edinburgh, his natural inclination was confirmed by the enthusi- asm of that artist. Subsequent to this, through the influence of Sir Walter Scott, he was enabled to enter the Trustees' Academy, then taught by Andrew Wilson, where he remained for five years, principally drawing from the antique, after which he spent three years in London studying in the British Museum and attending the life-class of a private art-school. He returned to Edinburgh in 1826; four years later he joined the Scottish Academy as full member, from the Royal Institution, and began to assist 430 ART IN SCOTLAND. Sir William Allan in conducting the classes in the Trustees' Academy. Among the other friendships which he contracted with the Edinburgh artists was that of the Rev. John Thomson, whose acquaintance possibly exercised a beneficial influence on his style in regard to breadth of eflect and flow of line, and whose daughter he married. In company with his young wife he set ofl" in 1833 ^0^ t^6 Continent, remaining away some five years studying at Rome, Florence, Bologna, and Venice, returning by Munich, in the course of which his style was still further matured by the study of the great works of Titian and Giorgione in Italy, and those of Rubens in the Bavarian capital and the Northern collections. On his return to Britain he made London his home for a few years, during which time he created a considerable sensation there by a Crucifixion, a splendid picture, in which the figure of the Saviour on the cross was represented covered with a white cloth. It was shown at one of the minor exhibitions in London, and afterwards also in Edinburgh. In 1844, 3.fter which the Crucifixion was painted, his picture of Claverhouse ordering Morton to be Shot was purchased by the London Art Union for ;^4oo. This was the best period of his works, the most important of which were the admirable Trial of Effie Deans, other subjects from Scott's novels, and the large though somewhat weak Christ teaching Humility, full of fine colour, grace, and dignity. The last work was the first purchase made by the Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland for disposition in the Scottish National Gallery, and was the last great picture painted by the artist.^ At the close of 1849 ^^ returned to Edinburgh, and was elected to the office of head-master in the old Academy, of which he had been such an honourable pupil, and in the same year exhibited at the Royal Academy his Bride of Lammermoor, which was pur- ^ The same subject was sold with one of Lloyd's collections in London in 1857 for ;^204, 15s. ; and again in Mr J. Graham's collection in 1887, for 100 guineas: the latter measured 93 by 57 inches. The National Gallery picture is II feet 7 inches by 7 feet 8 inches. CHARLES LEES. 43 1 chased by Lord Egerton. His Christ walking on the Sea was exhibited at the Scottish Academy in 1850, and, Hke the former Scriptural subject, has been engraved.^ Among his other en- graved works are Italian Goatherds, Ruth, and the Glee-maiden (the latter by Lumb Stocks), issued by the Association for the years 1843, 1844, and 1845. I^ ^^47 ^^ was one of the un- successful competitors at the Westminster Hall competition with the two previously mentioned Scriptural subjects, at which his brother was more fortunate; and died on the 22d April 1869, after having suffered during the previous eight years from paralysis, in which time the disease prevented his nerveless hand from wielding the brush, which he had so nobly used in the days of his health, although always represented in the Academy. He had a keen perception of the beautiful in colour and form, which, with a graceful and harmonious flow of line, pervades all his works. His labours as an art teacher have been duly re- cognised by the artists who had the good fortune to benefit by his teaching, among whom were the late Mr Robert Herdman, Orchardson, Pettie, Peter Graham, Hugh Cameron, and other eminent artists, whose style he has largely influenced. In Novem- ber of 1870 a monument executed by his pupil John Hutchison, R.S.A., was inaugurated in Warriston Cemetery, consisting of a handsome slab of grey Sicilian marble, with an alto-relievo head in white marble, the cost of which was defrayed by his former pupils. CHARLES LEES, R.S.A. Born, 1800; died, 27th February 1880. Among the many sufferers by the failure of the City of Glasgow Bank was Charles Lees, who was concerned in it as a trustee on behalf of his sister, and the shock of which brought on a stroke of paralysis which terminated fatally after a few days' illness. He was a native of Cupar in Fifeshire, and studied art in Edinburgh, where he began his career by teaching drawing, afterwards taking ^ Sold in London in 1856 for 50 guineas ; in the following year for jCgS, 14s. 432 ART IN SCOTLAND. 1 to portrait-painting, in which he was benefited by some little instruction from Raeburn. After some years' practice, in the course of which he got married, he spent a few years in Rome studying from the old masters, and returned to Edinburgh, where he resumed his portrait-painting, and joined the Scottish Academy in 1830 along with the seceders from the Royal Institution. He painted some good historical pictures, such as the Murder of Rizzio, the Death of Cardinal Beaton, and John Knox during his Confinement. Being fond of open-air sports and pastimes, he found among these his most congenial subjects, and exhibited Shinty on the Ice in 186 1, a charming composition full of hazy light and atmosphere; Skaters at Duddingston Loch, in 1854; Golfers on St Andrews Links, with numerous portraits, in 1865 ; Curlers, in 1867; and many other similar subjects. In the latter part of his life he devoted himself more to landscape-painting, chiefly from subjects on the east coast, varied by an occasional portrait and domestic scene. Among his landscapes, a View of St Mark's at Venice was very highly spoken of. He gave a great deal of his time to the management of the affairs of the Royal Scottish Academy, for which he acted as treasurer from 1868 till his death, and he is favourably represented in the Scottish National Gallery by the Summer -Moon Bait- Gatherers, which was exhibited in 1860.^ WILLIAM LEIGHTON LEITCH. Born, 2d November 1804 ; died, 25th April 1883. The art of painting in water-colours was of a later development in Scotland than in England, and even yet can hardly be said to have attained the same popularity which it enjoys in the south. The moist nature of the Northern climate, as well as the wilder form of its scenery, are more adapted to the practice of oil in land- scape, and the hardy and severe character of the mountaineer is more easily and rapidly caught by the hog-hair brush than the ^ Art Journal, &c. WILLIAM LEIGHTON LEITCH. 433 camel-hair. W. L. Leitch will always remain a distinguished rep- resentative of this branch of art in Scotland, as, although he also painted in oil, he is by far most exclusively and favourably known as a painter in water-colour. He was bom in Glasgow, in the upper part of the High Street, or rather its continuation northwards called Castle Street, nearly opposite the Royal Infirmary and the entrance to the Cathedral, a district which has twice since that time changed its appearance, when it appeared pretty much like the memory- sketch made by the artist and presented to his friend Mr A. Macgeorge of Glasgow in 1879. His father had settled in Glasgow after serving some eighteen years as a sailor and soldier, and there William remained till he got married. He early began the practice of his art, and found abundance of material for his boyish efforts in the quaint old tombstones and noble cathedral at his own door, which probably influenced his future choice of subjects. He was sent to a weaving factory after receiving a good plain education ; but his love of art was so strong, and further fostered by his associating at this time with the late Horatio MacCuUoch and Sir Daniel Macnee, that he determined to follow it as a profession. Giving up his situation as a weaver, he obtained another of a more artistic kind in the shop of a house-painter, where he soon evinced much talent in the more ornamental part of that trade, receiving at the same time some instruction from Mr John Knox, a popular local artist, who taught drawing and painting. Fond of theatricals and music, it was at a Choral Union practice that he met Miss Smellie, whom he married in his twentieth year, and commenced a happy life on fifteen shillings a-week. He began scene-painting in 1824, at the salary of twenty-five shillings a-week, in the Theatre Royal in Queen Street, which then possessed, in addition to scenery by David Roberts, the magnificent drop by Alexander Nasmyth, the appointments of this theatre being among the finest of any in the kingdom. The theatre, however, was too large and too expensive to keep up in a town where many of the people looked upon actors as little less than limbs of the Evil One, 2 E ART IN SCOTLAND. and Leitch considered himself lucky if he got his wages duly paid on the Saturday night. On one of these occasions when the " treasury " was empty, and the cupboard probably as bare as old Mother Hubbard's, the scene-painter, along with Macklin the machinist, were sent off to Ayr one Saturday to get the theatre there ready for " Blue Beard " for Monday night. Under the impression that their expenses had been paid by the manager, they set off with empty pockets, and their experience is thus related by Mr Macgeorge : " We got to Ayr about nine o'clock, and I got off the coach cold, stiff, and faint, for I had eaten nothing since eight in the morning. Our lodging had been pro- vided at the house of a baker, whose wife Macklin knew, . . . and who gave us a simple Scotch supper, for which we were both very thankful. About ten o'clock Macklin came to me and said, * My dear boy, get to bed, for although to-morrow is Sunday, we must be up at six o'clock, and get into the theatre before people are up, otherwise there is a possibility of our getting into trouble for desecrating the Lord's Day.' I didn't like this at all, but there seemed to be no help for it. I was awakened in the morning by old Mack, and we were soon at the stage-door of the theatre. When we opened it and got upon the stage, I shall never forget the look of desolation it had. . . . The wretched paltry pieces of set scenery, broken and torn, lying about, the hazy light of a misty morning hardly showing the tackle overhead, the dirt and dust and confusion, with the intense silence, were all very depressing. We began our work, and the old blue-chamber was got out and the * flats ' put together. They were sadly faded, and looked very bad, and I had but a poor stock of materials ; but I worked away as well as I could, though I felt very weak and stupid ; and poor Macklin was in a still worse condition. About nine o'clock we heard a peculiar tapping at the door, and then a low whistle. Macklin immediately got up, and staggered to the door saying, 'That must be Jamie.' I had not heard of Jamie before, but it appeared he was a half-witted creature, who always made his appearance to Macklin when he came to Ayr. I asked WILLIAM LEIGHTON LEITCH. 435 Jamie if he had any money, but he had not a farthing. I had left my watch at home, and neither of us had anything else which we could have pledged, even if a pawnshop had been open on Sunday. Something, however, had to be done; so Jamie and I got a bit of candle lighted, and descended to an apartment under the stage, where, after a long search among dust and dirt, we discovered four empty beer-bottles covered with grease. They had evidently been used as candlesticks. Having cleaned them as well as we could, Jamie was sent off with directions to sell them, and to spend what he could get for them on something to eat. It was getting on for twelve o'clock when he came back. He had got s}^d. for the bottles, and this he had expended in a few potatoes and three small salted herrings. ... A new difficulty arose. How were they to be cooked? for there was neither pot nor pan on the premises. We searched everywhere, and were returning in a hopeless state, when, in a dark place under the stage, my foot struck against something sharp, and on stooping to ascertain what it was, I brought up a dilapidated white iron theatric helmet. I was about to throw it away, when it occurred to me that if it could hold water it might serve our purpose. To test this, we clambered up to a cistern kept in readiness in case of fire, when to our great joy we found the old helmet was water-tight. A fire was speedily made in the green- room; the potatoes were washed and peeled, packed into the helmet, and the herrings placed on the top, and all cooked together." ^ Leitch remained at the scene-painting in connection with the Theatre Royal rather less than a year, and after some time had elapsed, during which he found enough employment of various kinds, barely sufficient to make ends meet, he went to Cumnock in Ayrshire. Snuff-boxes decorated with small pictures were then in great demand ; Macnee and MacCulloch were then simi- larly employed, and John Anderson formed a fourth. The last gave great promise in art, and was well known afterwards for his ^ Mr Macgeorge's Life of Leitch. 436 ART IN SCOTLAND. ^&:s small heads and general versatility in painting. Both Macnee am Leitch aided Anderson, who ultimately settled down in Paisley — a poor field at that time for art. It is pleasing to record the fact, that when death relieved Anderson from a long illness, Leitch was not quite unmindful of his widow. While engaged at Cumnock, his work attracted the attention of the Marquis of Hastings, and Dr Young of Irvine, on whose advice he ventured to London, bearing with him a letter of intro- duction to David Roberts. Through the influence of this eminent artist he was employed at the Queen's Theatre (afterwards the Prince of Wales'), where he found plenty of work, but with very little pay on which to support his wife and three children. Here he first made the acquaintance of Clarkson Stanfield, and in 1832 found better employment at the Pavilion Theatre, managing also to find sufficient time to do a little drawing and painting on his own account, appearing as an exhibitor at the Society of British Artists in the same year. Mr Anderden, a stockbroker, who had noticed Leitch's talent, now proved a good friend to the young artist, not only by affording the means of going to the Continent, but also showing great kindness to his wife and children during his absence. He spent about four years in various parts of Italy, contriving to earn a living by what teaching he could get to do among English families in the towns where he was studying, and returned home with a large quantity of sketches and studies in oil and water colours, including some for a commission which he had received from Lord Douglas. He now found himself in a position to decline accepting work as a scene-painter, and began to assume one more in keeping with his talent as an artist, by giving lessons in painting to people of a class who could afford to pay a high fee. Her Majesty was at this time fond of painting, and finding among her ladies several who were pupils of Leitch making good progress, requested Lady Canning, who was one of these, to desire him to wait on her at Windsor, where he had the honour of giving her Majesty a course of lessons in water-colour painting. This led to his attendance at Windsor, Balmoral, WILLIAM LEIGHTON LEITCH. 437 Osborne, and Buckingham Palace, at various intervals for over twenty years, after which he had the further honour of directing the similar studies of some of the young princes and princesses. He gradually, of course, gave up teaching altogether, his last pupil being the Princess of Wales, who, on hearing of his death, sent a wreath for his grave. He was an exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1841 to 1861, with a few breaks, but never exhibited more than one picture at a time. After his election as a member of the new Society of Painters in Water-Colours, he contributed regularly to the exhibi- tions of that Society, and on Louis Haghe's election as president on the death of Henry Warren, was elected vice-president. In 1854, on account of his health, he accompanied his pupil. Sir Coutts Lindsay, on an Italian tour of four or five months, in the course of which he made many beautiful drawings. He had suffered all his life from acute pains in the head, which occurred at regular intervals, a derangement of the system well known to physicians, and often brought on by want of sufficient exercise. It was probably due to the cause of these attacks, which became more violent in the later part of his life, that he died on the 25th of April 1883.1 His works are well known through the medium of numerous good engravings, among which may be mentioned, Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, by Forrest ; the Villa of Lucullus at Misenum, by Willmore, issued by the Art Union of London in 1851 ; the Villa Fountain, by Forrest, for the Glasgow Art Union ; and the Shores and Islands of the Mediterranean, a quarto volume published in 1841. He was not so successful in his oil-pictures as his water-colours, by which he is most generally known. They are characterised by a great deal of sweetness and beauty, both in regard to form, colour, and sentiment ; and while sometimes suggestive of the works of Turner, Roberts, and Stan- field, especially the last, have always an individuality of their own. He retained his power till almost the very last ; and the 1 Extracted chiefly from Mr A. Macgeorge's Memoir, 1884. 438 ART IN SCOTLAND. writer of this recalls with pleasure an interview with the artist Macnee's house in Glasgow^ a few years before his death, wh shown a series of charming little water-colour sketches then made on the banks of the Clyde, in and about the neighbourhood of Bowling. A sale of Leitch's work was held soon after his death : this in- cluded a group of drawings by De Wint, which had hung on his wall, and which had visibly affected his style ; in fact, this sim- ilarity had never been noticed till they were hung alongside of Leitch's own works. The high esteem in which he was held by all who knew him, and the enduring friendship which existed so closely between Macnee and his other friends, are a sufficient testimony to the amiability of the man, whose manners and language were at all times quaint, homely, and modest. HORATIO MACCULLOCH, R.S.A. Born, 1805 ; died, 24th June 1867. The life of this very distinguished artist is an example of strong poetic feeling and love of nature, combined with a talent for art, which is often developed under apparently the most ad- verse conditions. His father was styled a manufacturer in Glas- gow, but more probably was only a weaver, and he named his son after the great Admiral. While serving his apprenticeship as a house -painter, he obtained lessons from John Knox, a painter of some ability in Glasgow, who added to his means of living by teaching drawing and painting. Daniel Macnee, who was at the same time attending Knox's class, strongly urged MacCulloch to follow art, and afterwards remained his fast friend throughout his life. In Glasgow he tried his prentice hand on subjects by the banks of the rivers Kelvin and Cart, which were at that time streams of unpolluted pastoral beauty. About 1825 he found employment in Edinburgh, where he remained a couple of years, colouring the plates for Selby's ' Ornithology ' and Lizars's HORATIO MACCULLOCH. 439 * Anatomy,' besides further improving himself in art. He returned to Glasgow, and after further studious application, began to exhibit at the first exhibition of the Dilettanti Society in the Argyle Arcade, in 1828. Besides contributing to the succeeding exhibi- tions of that Society, he sent to those of the Scottish Academy, for the first time in 1829, after which he had so far made his mark as to secure his election as an Associate in 1834, and full Academician four years later. His principal picture prior to this date was a View in Cadzow Park, near Hamilton. While he was at Hamilton, Macnish, the author of the ' Anatomy of Drunkenness,' was also residing there, and the two had many a ramble among the grand old oaks in the forest. It was about the time of the O^Connell furor in Scotland, and they took it into their heads to pass themselves off" as sons of the Liberator. In this character they were sumptuously en- tertained by some of the well-to-do Radicals of the district, one of whom, on pointing them out on the street to a friend on the following day, was informed that the one was "a penter body frae Glasgow," and the other "that daft callant Macnish." Another of his pranks consisted in riding an elephant, borrowed from a menagerie, through the streets of Hamilton by moonlight. To the Royal Academy of London in 1843 he sent the Old Bridge over the Avon, and a Scene in Cadzow Forest. In 1852, at the same exhibition, attention was attracted by a Drove Road, and Loch Coruiskin — the latter full of gloomy poetic feeling; although, speaking generally, his works were little known or ap- preciated in London. True to the instincts of a Scotchman, he found his subjects entirely in his native country — the lakes and barren deer-forests of the North and Western Highlands, and the rivers of the Lowlands, furnishing abundant material for his brush, giving an impetus to this branch of the art in Scotland of the greatest importance to his successors, such as Peter Graham and MacWhirter. A lengthy catalogue might be made of the beautiful and important works which he executed : his Lowland River, Loch Maree, Dream of the Highlands, and Loch Achray, through 440 ART IN SCOTLAND. the medium of good engravings, are familiar to all Scotchmen. His magnificent Kilchurn Castle (1854) has been equally splen- didly engraved. Among his other works may be mentioned a Highland Stronghold (1849) ; the very noble picture of the Lime- Kilns, and a Quiet River (1850); Sun Rising through the Mist, and Sundown on Loch Achray (1864); and Knock Castle (1855). His very grand Highland Deer-Forest (1856), which was pur- chased by the Glasgow Art Union, was exhibited in London, where the ' Times ' critic spoke of it as being equal to the work of the great Turner. He died in consequence of an attack of paralysis — the third — after lying a day and a half unconscious, and wrought up till the very last, the latest picture on which he was engaged being a small Moonlight, exhibited unfinished at the Academy in the following year. A man of simple habits, extensive reading, varied information, and great amiability, he justly deserved the respect which he enjoyed from all with whom he associated. Among his many friends was John Wilson (Christopher North), who in a public speech paid the most eloquent tribute ever uttered to the genius and merits of MacCulloch. There had been a long-standing agreement between the two, that the artist would paint a picture of EUeray, Wilson's beautiful residence on Lake Windermere. Misfortune, however, overtook the Professor before the long- deferred and promised picture was commenced, which of course necessitated a visit to the spot; and one day Wilson broke in excitedly on the artist, exclaiming with glistening eye and husky voice, "MacCulloch, I've sold EUeray !" His works, thanks to the admirable engravings of many of them by the late William Forrest, are probably more popular in Scotland than those of any other landscape-painter. His style was vigorous, robust, and refined, conveying to the spectator a grand impression of nature in all its phases. His moonlights, especially that of the Deer-Forest, are full of fine poetic feeling, and probably no artist has so truly rendered the character of Scottish scenery as exhibited in the broad expanse of lake, and HORATIO MACCULLOCH. 44I crag after crag of mountain swathed in mist, rising beyond re mains of old Highland fortresses. He was a true impressionist of the school of nature, faithful without being literally topographical, and never looked at nature through other people's spectacles. The geology of his mountains, and the minor distinctions of the foliage of his trees, may sometimes not give entire satisfaction to scientists ; but he cannot be said to have ever sinned against or taken undue liberties in the interpretation of the scenes which he professed to have represented. He may be said to have taken up the art where Nasmyth and Thomson of Duddingston left off, but, unlike either of these in one respect, planted his easel in the open air, and made nature his studio. As in the case of nearly every Scottish painter of his period, we must make allowance for the change which his pictures have undergone owing to the too liberal use of asphaltum. Those who knew his works when they were in their pristine state, can recall the silvery tone which has now become embrowned ; but in spite of this change, his great pic- tures still retain their prestige as noble works of art. MacCulloch was essentially an oil-painter. Nature for him was too substantial for expression by washes of thin pigments, and in consequence his water-colour pictures, which are not very numer- ous, are far below the level of his works in oil. He may be said to stand in the same relation to landscape-painting in Scotland which Raeburn does in portraiture, and Wilkie in domestic art. In the year 1868, an exhibition of over ninety of his pictures and sketches was opened in Edinburgh by Mr William Clark, his then sole surviving trustee, as well as one of his oldest and most intimate friends ; and his biography has been published, written by his fellow-artist and associate Mr Alexander Fraser, R.S.A. A monument has been erected over his grave in Warriston Ceme- tery, from the design of the late Mr James Drummond, R.S.A. It is in the form of a richly decorated Celtic cross ; one side of the pyramidal base contains a palette and brushes, adorned with a laurel wreath, and an arched panel on the other side contains a bas-relief of his favourite dogs. 442 ART IN SCOTLAND. ROBERT RONALD MACIAN, A.R.S.A. Born, ; died, 13th December 1856. This artist, engravings from whose works were at one time very popular, and still remain so in the Scottish Highlands, was descended from the old race of the Maclans or Macdonalds of Glencoe. He took to the stage early in his youth, and was great in playing the part of the Dugald Creature in ' Rob Roy ' before his eighteenth year, at which time he gave up acting and took to painting. He had all the characteristics of the Celt — an enthu- siastic temperament, great energy, and a passionate love and ad- miration for everything pertaining to his native Highlands. Among the pictures by which he distinguished himself were a Battle of Culloden and a Highland Feud (robbing an eagle's nest), in 1843. ^^ 1^54 he exhibited perhaps what was his most am- bitious picture, representing an Encounter in Upper Canada, in which a portion of the Clan Eraser resisted a superior force of French and American Indians. This was a large canvas ex- hibited in the Scottish Academy, crowded with figures fighting, dying, or dead, in which the passion of the combatants was shown intensified to such a degree as to satisfy the most sanguinary tendencies of the spectator. He appeared in the Royal Academy in 1843 with a Highland Ceamach defending a Pass, which was skied by the hanging committee, and was one of his engraved works. In the same year he published the first part of a book on the Highland Clans, and his Coronach was also shown later on at the Academy. As would be expected, he was a clever reciter and singer of Scottish songs, being especially great in " Donald Caird " and "We arena fou." The latter song he at one time interpreted so naturally in the house of the late Mr S. C. Hall, that the servant made a confidential inquiry at his master as to whether he ought to procure a cab to convey the gentleman home. At the Eglinton tournament he took the part of a medieval jester. He was elected Associate of the Scottish Academy in 1852, and his death, which ROBERT M'INNES. 443 occurred at Hampstead, is said to have resulted from an illness aggravated by the news of the deaths of many of his friends in the Crimean campaign. His wife, Mrs Fanny Maclan, was long the mistress of the Female School of Design in London. She is well known from a popular engraving of her picture representing a Highlander de- fending his Family at the Massacre of Glencoe. Among her pictures exhibited at the Royal Academy and the British Institu- tion may be mentioned the Empty Cradle, a Highland Cearnach, Dying Cateran, and Liberty and Captivity. ROBERT M'INNES. Born, 1801 ; died, February 1886. A painter oi genre subjects, which he treated in a simple, natural manner. His pictures are more characterised by a high degree of finish and good careful drawing and colour, than by the loftier qualities of art, such as imagination, or subtlety of expression and treatment. He spent many years of his life in Italy, from whence he returned about 1848. During that period he occupied a fair position as an artist, and was frequently represented on the walls of the Royal Academy, as well as in Scottish exhibitions. One of the earliest of his pictures at the Royal Academy (1843) was Italian Bowlers, a large work containing many characteristic figures grouped in the courtyard of an osteria. Five years later he exhibited what was a great advance on his previous works, a Summer's Afternoon on the Lido at Venice, being a representation of the celebration of 2.festa by a party of Italian peasants assembled under a tree, and containing many effective groups of figures painted in a clear and finished manner. In the same exhibition he was also represented by a Scene on the Carrara Mountains, an elaborate picture of bullocks drawing blocks of marble from the quarries down the mountain-side, notable for the successful rendering of the peculiar sluggish movement of the animals. In 1849 ^^ exhibited two 444 ART IN SCOTLAND. pictures of a homely character which were favourably noticed,-^ the First Pair of Trews, and Enforcing the Sanitary Laws. The former of these represented a tailor measuring a lad of fifteen or sixteen years of age who had previously worn only the kilt, and the latter a girl washing a child at a fountain. His Fiori del Carnival appeared at the Royal Academy in the following year, representing a group of ladies seated at a balcony overlooking the Corso thronged with figures ; it was not well hung. Its meritorious qualities were constituted by good colour and execution with con- siderable grace, while its defect was a slight absence of the Italian character. The Diversion of the Moccoletti of the following year was a similar subject to the last-mentioned, but richer in colour, and, like nearly all his later works, finished in a most fastidious manner, and freer of the hard and sometimes meaning- less shadows injuring his earlier works. He died at Stirling, and for many years previously had ceased to contribute to the exhibitions. One of his works, not his best, is in the Glasgow Corporation Galleries. KENNETH MACLEAY, R.S.A. Born, 1802 ; died, November 1878. n Macleay was one of those artists whose profession was to a large extent destroyed by the invention of photography, being a miniature-painter in the enjoyment of an extensive practice in Edinburgh. One of his early works which brought him to the front, was a small full-length water-colour portrait of Helen Faucit, dressed in white, and standing beside a table, — a charming work, full of dignity and fine feeling, — which has been reproduced in lithography. Finding his practice as a miniaturist dying away, he turned his attention to portrait-painting in oil as well as water- colour, meeting with considerable success; and also painting numerous Highland landscapes, in which he was not so happy. The figure -subjects which he attempted were few in number, mostly confined to one or two figures, among which may be SIR DANIEL MACNEE. 445 mentioned Highland Courtship, the Macdonalds of Eigg coming out from their Caves, and a Widow taking her only Son to his long home. He was one of the very early members of the Scottish Academy, to the exhibitions of which he was a regular and prolific contrib- utor : in the last year of his life he exhibited no fewer than five works, and was represented in the exhibition in the year after his death by seven. He is most popularly known by a series of water- colour drawings of figures illustrating the Highlanders of Scotland, executed for the collection of her Majesty, thirty-one of which have been reproduced by lithography and coloured by the hand. These include portraits in the Highland costume of H.R.H. the late Prince Consort, the Duke of Edinburgh, and illustrations of thirty- five of the principal Highland clans, containing likenesses of some of the retainers of the Royal household at Balmoral, many of which were exhibited at the Royal Academy. He dwelt permanently in Edinburgh, where he died. SIR DANIEL MACNEE, P.R.S.A. Born, 1806; died, 17th January 1882. This eminent and fashionable portrait-painter was born in the parish of Fintry in Stirlingshire, but was removed to Glasgow along with his mother on the death of his father, when only some six months old. He lived at first in the Kirkgate of Glasgow, a district which has now been entirely remodelled, and at his second school in the Limmerfield first became acquainted with his life- long friend W. L. Leitch, the water-colour artist. He began to learn drawing when about the age of twelve, at the class of John Knox in Dunlop Street, along with Leitch, Horatio MacCulloch, and Templeton — the last of whom afterwards became a clever painter of small portraits and domestic subjects, but lost himself in consequence of giving way to unsettled habits. He remained with Knox about four years, after which he was employed by Dr James Brown to make some large anatomical drawings for 446 ART IN SCOTLAND. the illustration of popular lectures. He and Leitch were at this time fond of theatricals, and got up a little theatrical club, hiring a kind of cellar for their dramatic performances in the Saltmarket, and for which the pair of them painted the scenery. The then fashionable demand for painted snuff-boxes of Ayrshire manufacture tempted Macnee into the employment of a Mr Crighton at Cumnock, where he only remained a month ; Lizars the engraver, of Edinburgh, having in the meantime seen some of the anatomical drawings, offering him by letter a situation to draw and colour similar illustrations for his books — an offer which was eagerly accepted. He commenced to work with Lizars in Edinburgh when about the age of nineteen, studying at the Trustees' Academy in the evenings, where he added to the number of his friends the great David Scott, Thomas Duncan, and Robert Scott Lauder. He began to exhibit chalk-portraits in Edinburgh in 1826, and on his return to Glasgow four years afterwards, along w4th these began to paint portraits, fancy heads, and subjects of homely peasant life. It was about this time that in company with Horatio MacCuUoch he made his first trip to London, the expenses of both being defrayed by Bailie Lumsden of Glasgow. They went by coach, and the incidents of the journey afforded a fund of stories to Macnee for long afterwards. Neither of the two seem to have been very highly impressed by what they saw at the Academy's exhibition, as after their return Macnee said the portraits there were of no account, and MacCuUoch declared the landscapes not worth looking at. He lived at this time in Cochrane Street, and thenceforward followed uninterruptedly the profession of a portrait-painter, con- tributing regularly to the Glasgow as well as to the Edinburgh ex- hibitions. His success in catching a good likeness, united with a pleasant bonhomie^ fund of anecdote racily told, with all the other qualifications of a rare jolly good fellow, rapidly brought him into notice, and he moved westwards to the more fashionable Regent Street, soon becoming one of the most prominent Glasgow SIR DANIEL MACNEE. 44/ citizens. The death of John Graham-Gilbert in 1877, with whom he had hitherto divided the practice in the west of Scotland, added largely to his employment, when he removed still farther westwards to a house which he bought in Bath Street. On his election as president of the Royal Scottish Academy (which he joined in 1830), he removed to Edinburgh in 1876, receiving the honour of knighthood in the following year. He painted rapidly and freely, often finishing a head -size in three sittings of an hour or an hour and a half each, and his numerous portraits are to be met with almost everywhere in Scot- land. Besides regularly contributing to the Glasgow and Edin- burgh exhibitions, he was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy in London. Among his portraits may be mentioned those of Macnish, the author of the ^ Anatomy of Drunkenness,' 1S37; J. B. MaccuUoch, the political economist, 1841 ; the late Duke of Hamilton, Lord Brougham, Viscount Melville, the late Lord Belhaven, the Duke of Buccleuch, the Earl of Haddington, Admiral Sir William Edmonstone, and a great many portraits of ladies, in which he was particularly successful. One of his best works was a portrait of Dr Wardlaw, for which he was awarded a gold medal at the Paris International Exhibition in 1855. Regarding this work an eminent French art critic remarks — '' M. Macnee nous parait, avec M. Grant, le meilleur portraitiste de I'ecole Anglaise, si nous en jugeons sur cet ^chantillon unique ; car c'est I'unique toile que I'artiste ait envoyee k I'Exposition, et nous le regrettons." ^ Although not possessed of much invention, he occasionally painted subject-pictures, mostly confined to one or two figures, such as the Ballad, scenes from the ' Gentle Shepherd,' &c. Among the other honours conferred on him was that of LL.D. from the University of Glasgow, besides being a deputy-lieutenant of the city of Edinburgh. He died after a short illness, and was followed to the grave by an unusual number of friends. The Scottish National Gallery possesses the Bracelet, and a por- 1 Les Beaux Arts en Europe, Theophile Gautier, 1855. 448 ART IN SCOTLAND. trait head -size of his old friend Horatio MacCulloch — ^*f!ie latter unfortunately much gone in colour. It is regretted that he sometimes used too freely a fugitive kind of Naples yellow in his lighter flesh - tints, and bitumen or asphaltum in his backgrounds and deep shadows, more especially in his earlier works. ARTHUR PERIGAL, R.S.A. Born, 1816; died, 5th June 1884. A popular landscape-painter, and a long, regular, and prolific exhibitor in the Scottish Academy and other exhibitions. He was the son of an English historical painter, a pupil of Fuseli, whose name frequently appears in the Royal Academy catalogues from 18 10 onwards, and was born in London, but brought early in life to Edinburgh, where he resided till his sudden death at the age of sixty-eight. With some exceptions in regard to Switzer- land and Italy, his subjects were mostly from Scottish scenery, which he treated in a crisp, breezy manner, often verging on hardness, but always bold and firm in the handling. He was elected Associate of the Scottish Academy in 1841, and full Academician in 1868, his diploma picture being a Moorland near Kinlochewe in Ross-shire. He cannot be said to have influenced in any way the develop- ment of the art in Scotland, his works being rather suggestive of following in the track of MacCulloch ; but his numerous contribu- tions to the exhibitions of the Scottish Academy, as well as the popularity of his works, render some notice of him necessary here. JOHN PHILLIP, H.R.S.A.. R.A. Born, 22d May 1817; died, 27th February 1867. The similarity of style between Scottish and Spanish art has already been referred to, and it is remarkable that one of the most distinguished Scottish artists should have found the subjects JOHN PHILLIP. 449 of his most notable and important works in studies made among the Spanish people, after studying among his own. Both Wilkie, and Roberts in architecture, found many of their subjects in the romantic country of Spain; but Phillip has been most closely identified with it, and his name cannot be recalled without this association. In these works he has given a nationality and peculiar animation, which even the great native artists have not surpassed : from Velasquez and Murillo down to the latest painters of the Peninsula, none have more faithfully and forcibly registered the genuine nationality ; and on no other grounds can this sympa- thetic feeling be explained, than a similarity of character and disposition on the part of the Scot to the Spaniard. John Phillip was a native of Aberdeen, and like many other eminent artists, came of a humble parentage. He was early in life apprenticed to a house-painter, and when about the age of fifteen, made some attempt at picture-painting, by trying to copy a sign-board containing a portrait of the Scottish hero Sir William Wallace. Some interest was taken in the young artist by Major Pryse Gordon, to whose house it is said Phillip was sent to replace a broken pane of glass : the Major found,* on coming into the room, that the window was still unrepaired, on account of the young glazier being unable to withdraw his attention from the pictures on the walls. When about the age of seventeen he made his first visit to London under rather disadvantageous circum- stances ; he hid himself on board a brig sailing between Aberdeen and London, the master of which was an acquaintance of his father, and on being discovered, was compelled to pay for his passage by painting the ship's figurehead, and lifting ballast for two days on the arrival of the brig at the port of London. He managed to spend a whole day at the exhibition at Somerset House, and had a glance at the National Gallery, after which he worked his passage back again to Aberdeen. His early deter- mination to become an artist was strengthened by what he had seen, more especially the pictures of his countryman Wilkie ; and in the following year he painted an interior containing twelve 2 F 450 ART IN SCOTLAND. figures, one of the principal of which was a pedlar. Major Gordon having noticed the progress of Phillip, mentioned his name with high praise to Lord Panmure, who sent Gordon a cheque for ;^5o, to be spent on behalf of the young artist, a portion of which sum was applied towards the purchase of the Pedlar, afterwards given by Lord Panmure to the Mechanics' Institute at Brechin, along with his Morning before the Battle of Bannockburn, exhibited in 1843, ^^^ two cattle-pieces. He now resided for some time with Major Gordon, who had sufficient taste to direct to some extent his study, and through whose recommendation he received several commissions for portraits : he had also during this time the benefit of some instruction from a local painter named Forbes. About 1836 he migrated to Lon- don, when he appears to have been a pupil for a very short time under Mr T. M. Joy, probably still under the patronage of Major Gordon or Lord Panmure, and in the following year was admitted into the school of the Royal Academy. He very soon, however, found himself able to earn a living by portrait-painting, and in 1838 exhibited a portrait of a Young Lady at the Royal Academy. This was followed by a Piper, and a sketch entitled Highland Courtship, at the British Institution in 1839, in which year also he exhibited at the Academy a Moor, and a portrait of W. Clerihew. He then returned to Aberdeen, where he spent a few years, chiefly in portrait-painting. During this time he exhibited the already- mentioned picture of the Morning of Bannockburn, and after- wards, in 1846, finally returned to London, where he exhibited his picture of Tasso in Disguise relating his Story to his Sister. In the following years appeared numerous Scottish subjects, which gradually made an impression on the public, the most notable being the Presbyterian Catechising, the scene of which is the interior of a farmer's house, exhibited in 1847; the Scotch Fair, 1848; Drawing for the Militia, 1849; Scotch Baptism, 1850; a Scotch Washing (engraved for the Glasgow Art Union, under the title of Heather Belles), the Spaewife, and Sunbeam, in 185 1. In 1847 ^t the British Institution appeared two small pictures, JOHN PHILLIP. 451 Courtship, and the Grandfather, the latter a composition of three figures. On account of his health having been enfeebled by a severe illness, he made an excursion to the south of Spain in 185 1, remaining principally at Seville, where he passed some seven or eight months.^ This visit completely changed the whole current of his art, and laid the foundation of his future fame by the study of the picturesque people among whom he sojourned. Although he found the attractions of nature in the streets and suburbs of the old towns of Spain stronger than the interiors of the Spanish galleries, yet he did not neglect these. Of the copies which he made then, the Surrender of Breda, after Velasquez, was acquired at the sale of his works for the Scottish National Gallery for ;j£'23i; and at the same sale other two copies from the same master (one of which is the famous picture of Velasquez in his Studio) were acquired by the Council of the Royal Academy. The abundant results of his first journey to Spain enriched the future exhibitions of the Royal Academy, where he exhibited, in 1853, Life among the Gipsies of Seville, full of humour and variety ; and the Perla de Triana, both pictures attracting atten- tion by their great richness of colour and able execution. Among those in whom his works excited admiration was Sir Edwin Land- seer, whose enthusiastic praise led her Majesty to purchase the Spanish Gipsy Mother, and several of his sketches, besides giving him a commission to paint his Letter-Writer of Seville, exhibited in the following year along' with his portrait of Lady Cosmo Russell. His powerful character-picture representing the Collec- tion in a Scotch Kirk, exhibited in 1855, together with his other subjects from Scottish life, showed the great development of his power acquired during and after his Spanish visit; and in 1856-57 he was again in the Peninsula, this time accompanied by his friend and fellow-artist Ansdell. At this period he produced his picture entitled Aqua Fresca, representing Muleteers halting at a well on one of the bridle-roads of Spain ; the Prayer of Faith shall save ^ It is said that his Spanish visit was caused by the critics taunting him with being only a painter of Scottish subjects. 452 ART IN SCOTLAND. the Sick, a scene in a Spanish church, which received much praise from Dr Ruskin ; a portrait of Senorita de Gayangos, entitled Dona Pepita; and the Gipsy Water- Carrier of Seville. He sometimes wrought on the same canvas in conjunction with Ansdell, who painted the animals : the first picture thus painted was the Wayside in Andalusia, a joint commission from their mutual friend Mr Rawlinson. In the year 1857 he exhibited his Prison Window, and Charity, and was elected Associate of the Royal Academy. The following year he exhibited his important picture of the Spanish Contrabandista, now in her Majesty's pos- session ; El Cortejo ; Youth in Seville ; a portrait of the Prince Consort in Highland costume, painted for the city of Aberdeen ; and a Daughter of the Alhambra. His election as full Acade- mician in 1859 followed upon his rich and beautiful picture of a Huff, and portrait of A. L. Egg, R. A. ; his diploma work, entitled Prayer, being deposited in the following year. During this time he painted for her Majesty the Marriage of the Princess Royal with Prince Frederick William, in which he successfully en- countered the difficulties attending the representation of a State ceremony: this was exhibited in i860, and along with it may be mentioned his equally successful but more difficult picture of the House of Commons, both engraved. During his third and last visit to Spain in 1860-61, he commenced his La Gloria at Seville : this, which was one of his most magnificent productions, repre- sented a custom prevailing in Spain on the death of an infant, which is believed to be received into Paradise immediately on its decease j the event is thus looked upon as a cause of rejoicing, and the artist has touchingly represented the mother suffering from her loss, notwithstanding the congratulations and assurances of her friends. This picture was exhibited in Edinburgh as well as in London; and in 1865 one of the main attractions of the Royal Academy was the splendid picture of the Early Career of Murillo, in which the boy-artist is shown offering his pictures for sale at the fair of Seville, and now possessed by Mr Keiller of Dundee, for whom it was purchased in 1886 for 3800 guineas. JOHN PHILLIP. 453 In 1866 appeared his fine portraits of Duncan M'Neill (Lord Colonsay), and Mrs Cooper; and the Chat round the Brasero, which for strength and brilliancy of colour has probably never been equalled by any modem or surpassed by any ancient picture. Never being of a very robust constitution, occasional visits for re- cuperation to the Continent or the bracing Highlands of his native country became a necessity, and in 1866 he spent about three months in Rome, from which he returned only to die in the follow- ing year, at which time his six pictures at the Royal Academy bore the name of the late John Phillip. The cause of his death was paralysis, resulting from a severe bilious fever. The subjects and treatment of his early Scottish and later Spanish pictures are as widely different as the climates of the two countries. In such works as the Presbyterian Baptism we are introduced to the clean cool interiors of Scottish homes, precise, modest, and careful; in his Spanish subjects, on the contrary, we find ourselves in the open air of a country glowing with colour, and deep and rich in tone — whether contemplating the group gathered round the young Murillo in the market-place of Seville, or waiting while Juan Morales, Escribano y memorialista^ indites the letter which is being dictated by the young senora in basquine and mantilla. Both his Letter- Writer and the Baptism created considerable attention at the Paris International Exhibition of 1855. Regarding the personality of this very distinguished artist, it is almost needless to mention his high character for straight- forwardness and manly generosity. He never put such high prices on his works as they might fairly have commanded, and the en- ormous advance upon the value of some will be readily seen by a glance at any list of his pictures sold during his lifetime, or after his death. His latest and unfinished picture of Spanish Boys playing at a Bull-fight has found a fitting repository among the works of art in the Scottish National Gallery. It measures fully 7 by 4^ feet. The artist intended it for this gallery, for which it was purchased by the Scottish Association for the Pro- 454 ART IN SCOTLAND. motion of the Fine Arts after his death, which body paid the full' price, a very modest one, previously agreed upon.^ ROBERT THORBURN ROSS, R.S.A. Born, 1816; died, 1876. i This eminent and popular domestic painter was born in Edin- burgh, where at the age of fifteen he was put under the instruction of George Simson, R.S.A., then the leading art-teacher in Edin- burgh. After serving for some time as an assistant to Mr Simson, during which he studied at the Trustees' Academy for three years ^ The following are the prices brought in London by some of Phillip's works — exceeding ;i^2CX) : — 1852 1857 1858 i860 1861 1862 1866 1867 1868 1869 1871 II 1872 The Spaewife of the Clachan . Presbyterian Catechising . Presbyterian Catechising . / Prison Window (original price \ I Gs. 300) / /Interior of Cottage (cabinet \ \ size) / Catechising the Independents . A Sunbeam .... /Gathering the Offering in a\ 1 Scotch Kirk J Scotch Baptism Fair in the Isle of Skye Independents' Catechising The Signal .... {Grape - Seller (bought from'^ Flatou for Gs. 190 same >- year) J /Collecting Offerings in Scotch) t Kirk J Reading the Bible La Gloria (small replica) . Lady's Head The Signal The Fortune-Teller . / Andalusian Letter - Writer \ \ (sketch) / Spaewife of the Clachan . The Merry Heart Cosas d'Espana El Acqua Bendita Castanetfe- Player /Prince Consort in Highland) \ Dress j" Grace Darling .... The Huff (small finished study) . Spanish Water-Seller Mr Well's Collection . Messrs Lloyd's Collection . Messrs WaUis's Collection Sold at Christie's Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Mr H. Bradley's Collection Flatou's Collection . Do. Mr R. Williams' Collection Sold at Christie's Lloyd's Collection Graves' Collection Mr Morby's Collection Mr Fallow's Collection Sold at Christie's Mr Dillon's Collection Sold at Christie's Do. Mr Gillott's Collection Do. Do. Do. Do. Mr J. Tyson's Collection Do. ;^220, lOS. 288, 15s. Gs. 370. 620. 1 440. 290. 360. ;^288, ISS. Gs. 300. 340- 280. 470. 660. 210. 200. 235- 950. £77^' Gs. 200. 200. 265. 870. 735- 735- 345- 915. 600. 410. ROBERT THORBURN ROSS. 455 under Sir William Allan, he settled in Glasgow as a portrait-painter, and occasionally visited other towns for the same purpose. In 1842 he paid a visit to Berwick-on-Tweed, where his father was a master- gunner : he settled there for some ten years, and practised painting more than hitherto, his portraits being mostly done in crayon while in Glasgow. From Berwick he sent his first contribution to the exhibitions of the Scottish Academy, the Spinning-Wheel in 1845, and thenceforward was a regular contributor. Among his other works painted during this period were the Dead Robin, Pious Conversation, the Mote in the Eye, and Blowing Hard. On his return to Edinburgh, where he afterwards permanently settled, he was elected an Associate in 1852, after which he 1873 El Acqua Bendita *". Sold at Christie's Gs. 830. n Girl of Connemara . Mr Hargreave's Collection 420. 11 Collecting the Offerings . Do. 1050. 1874 La Bella Florista Mr Montefiore's Collection 900. II J Buying Chesnuts, Seville (un-' \ finished) Holmewood Collection 800. It Highland Lassie Reading Mr Farnworth's Collection 800. II Scotch Baptism Mr T. Eden's Collection I75S- II Spanish Countess Do. 375. 1875 Winnowing Corn Mr Mendel's Collection ;^504- II Scotch Fair .... Mr E. Storr's Collection . 735- III Prison Window r Portrait of Lieut. - ColoneH Mr Naylor's Collection 3255- 1876 -! Crealock (in the manner of V t Velasquez) J Armstrong & Collie . 630. II Al Duena Do. 672. II Faith Do. 1260. II Pride of Seville .... Mr A. Levy's Collection 1050. 1877 Spanish Water-Seller Gaunt's House Collection . Gs. 240. Off Duty Do. 200. II Scotch Baptism Baron Grant's Collection . 1500. II Spanish Flower-Dealer Do. 1800. II La Loteria Nationale Do. 3000. II Officer's Widow (unfinished) Sold at Christie's 250. 1880 The Music Lesson Mr Marshall's Collection . ;^525- „ Piazetta of St Mark's Do. 304- II Scotch Baptism Mr H. R. Willis's Collection IOI8. 1881 Scene from Heart of Midlothian rCol. Houldsworth's Col-\ \ lection J Do. 472. II /Gentle Student (sold, 1871, for" "O Nannie, will ye gang wi' me?" 241. „ Do. 840. 1882 Church Porch .... Mr Harmon's Collection . 3937- II Highland Lassie Reading . Do. 945- II Al Duena Do. 703- 1886 Early Career of Murillo Sold at Christie's Gs. 3800. II Volunteers .... Do. 1500. II Water-Drinkers Do. 2450. II The Salute : el Cortejo . Mr Toulmin's Collection . 440. 45^ ART IN SCOTLAND. painted Hide and Seek (purchased by the late Mr Graham of Skelmorlie, and pubHshed in photographic form by the Glasgow Art Union), the Thorn in the Foot, Dame's School (not exhibited, and purchased by the Glasgow Art Union), Spinning Woo', the Broken Pitcher, Country Lassie, &c., the last-mentioned being bought by his friend Sir Daniel Macnee. His subjects were almost exclusively from domestic life, and are characterised by excellent colour and fine feeling, especially in the delineation of children and childish sports and amusements. He was elected full Acade- mician in 1869, and died in Edinburgh. His works are almost unknown south of the Tweed, and he is represented in the Scottish National Gallery by Asleep, and Sunshine, a larger picture, which was bequeathed to the Gallery by the late Mr J. Scott of Edin- burgh. His works in water-colour were also highly appreciated, and his daughter Miss Ross still worthily practises that branch of art. DAVID SCOTT, R.S.A. Born, loth October 1806; died, 5th March 1849. i This eminently original and poetic artist, who is sometimes desig- nated the Michael Angelo of Scotland, was born in the old house in Parliament Square, already alluded to, from which his father, Robert Scott the engraver, the master of John Burnet, removed to St Leonards, in the suburbs of Edinburgh, still retaining the former dwelling as a workshop. His father and mother suffered from a depressing melancholy, resulting from the deaths of their first four children, all of whom died within a few days of each other. The deaths of other members of the family, less closely related, occurring about the same time, still further deepened this melancholy, which had probably much to do with the formation of the future character of the artist, as exhibited in his serious, re- flective, and sometimes mystical works. He very early shared in the enthusiasm which then existed among the rising generation of Scottish artists in Edinburgh, and further imbibed a love for art from seeing the drawings and pictures which were being engraved DAVID SCOTT. 457 from in his father's workshop, where he also early became familiar with the illustrations to Blair's "Grave," by the somewhat like- minded William Blake. During the few years which he wrought at engraving with his father, he executed a series of plates for Thom- son's 'Scottish Melodies,' from Stothard's designs, diligently pursu- ing the study of the classics and the French and Italian languages, besides attending the Trustees' Academy, his first drawing at which was a large eye, dated March 182 1. He soon afterwards gave some time to the study of anatomy under Dr Munro, and in 1827 was chiefly instrumental in starting a life-class in a room in Infirmary Street, the subscription - book of which contains the names of Macnee, Hutchison, John Steell, M'Innes, Campbell, Wilson, Masson, and Fraser. This class continued for five years, when it became unnecessary owing to the greater facilities then developed for studying art in Edinburgh. His natural impulse for art soon impelled him into a higher and more original line than merely engraving reproductions of other artists' ideas, and in 1828 he attempted a picture of Hopes of Early Genius dispelled by Death, followed by Lot and his Daughters, Fingal and the Spirit of Lodi, Cain, and other similar subjects. These led to his election as an Associate of the Scottish Academy in 1830, after which he painted his Nimrod, a large and powerful conception, in which the somewhat overstrained semi- nude figure of the mighty hunter is represented in the act of blow- ing a horn, girdled with a tiger's skin, and a wounded fawn at his feet. Other works of about the same period were, the Death of Sappho, Wallace defending Scotland, Sarpedon, and Adam and Eve, some of which were full of the strange weird feeling which' so strongly characterises his later works. He seems even then to have had to contend against an inappreciative picture-buying public, as his diary records : "1831, Feb. 23. — Sold the ' Cloud' to Francis Grant, — the first of my pictures that has been sold. He very handsomely said, * The picture will be mine at the close of the exhibition, at your present price, but in the meantime put double the sum upon it ; it should be sold for more.' " In the 453 ART IN SCOTLAND. following year, in January, he sent his Lot, repainted, to the British Institution. Up till about this time he was still in the employment, to some extent, of his father, and now etched and published his six Dantesque outlines of the Monograms of Man, which, as was to be expected, was not a commercial success. In addition to these, he employed the winter evenings of 183 1, and those in the beginning of the next year, in his designs for Cole- ridge's " Ancient Mariner "; after which he writes, "Doing little but thinking of going abroad. Mr A has brought back my designs for the ' Ancient Mariner.' Lot has been rejected at the British Institution ; it was too large. Reject a work of art for its size ! You might as well reject a man for being too tall. My pictures in our exhibitions are all coming back to me. The Monograms altogether a loss as a publication. Several resources cut off. Difficulties in study ; for nothing but the best is worth a thought. Doubts of every kind. Sister Helen, where art thou now in the shades of the Unseen ? " His spirits, thus low, were little cheered up when he wrote Coleridge inquiring if any publisher was inter- ested in his great poem, to whom he might offer his designs, and received the saddening reply, that " were he to sum up the whole cash receipts for his published works, the sum-total should stand something like this — ^ s. d. £ s. d. 000 300 o o " adding that he did not believe there was a London publisher with whom his name would act otherwise than as a counterweight. In such depressed spirits he left Edinburgh for the Continent in August 1832, with introductory letters, &c., from Handyside Ritchie, the sculptor. After a brief study of the treasures of the Louvre, among which the hard and severe classical pictures of David attracted his attention, he proceeded to Italy, visiting Milan, Venice, Siena, and Florence, settling down at Rome for about fifteen months, where his enthusiasm was excited by the great works of art congregated there. In Rome, where he narrowly escaped assassination, he further prosecuted his study of DAVID SCOTT. 459 anatomy, made a large number of life- studies and numerous sketches and copies from Michael Angelo's works, besides paint- ing several pictures, including the Agony of Discord, and Sappho and Anacreon. It is curious to compare his first impressions of the works of some of the great Italian masters with those which he formed after a more intimate acquaintance with their excel- lences. Titian he characterised as an old man without invention, Tintoret a blind Polyphemus, Paul Veronese a Doge's page; and wrote in his diary of the knotty, bandy-legged strength of Buon- arotti, his incorrectness, and passing over deficiencies or crudities, afi'ording a great contrast to the art of the Greeks — adding that while grotesque and even ludicrous, his devils are all laughing sneering demons. This, and the fact that the earlier Itahan artists did not seem to have excited any admiration, can only be explained by the knowledge that he was suffering from feeble health, a nervous sensibility easily shocked, and an almost heart- less effort towards obtaining qualities in art which had eluded the grasp of most of the artists of antiquity, and of all those of his own time. He judged of a picture at first perhaps too exclusively by its sentiment and mental bearing, but latterly, still while in Rome, was again and again struck with the great beauty and sinl- plicity of Michael Angelo's colour : " it is truer than Titian ; very broad and real; it is the most severely grand that exists." These remarks he applied to the Prophets and Sibyls, and his admira- tion for the works of Raphael similarly increased. The details of his working life while in Rome, duly entered in his diary, are sad reading : want of health and vigour, swollen hands and every limb "affected, and almost continual depression of spirits. When one reads that he wrought for thirteen and fourteen hours a- day, sometimes from five o'clock in the morning, it is not to be wondered at that he should complain of exhaustion, and some- times even feel that poetry and painting were entirely worthless. The study of the great works in Rome seems unconsciously to have given birth to an unapproachable ideal standard of excellence and expression 3 but on his return to Britain in the spring of 1834, 460 ART IN SCOTLAND. the state of British art struck him by the forcible contrast which it presented with the works of the strong and powerful men whose spirits he had been in communion with. He was at this time only in his twenty-eighth year, and had been elected a member of several of the Italian academies. In the year following he was elected full Academician of the Scottish Academy. To the Edinburgh exhibitions of the succeeding years he reg- ularly contributed pictures of great power and character, which were looked at by an inappreciative public, and either passed over altogether or unfavourably commented upon by the press. The noble and poetic design of his works, and their qualities of colour, were invisible to the public. The daring and boldness of his conceptions, besides being startling and bewildering, were strangely unfamiliar to the ordinary frequenters of exhibitions, who, even now as then, in many cases fail to recognise the expres- sion of original imagination and subtle thought, unless conveyed through the media of academic form and scientific schemes of colour.^ His works, although therefore unpopular, had, however, many appreciative admirers, among whom were Professor Nichol of Glasgow University, the Rev. George Gilfillan, Dr Samuel Brown, Emerson, and the eccentric but accomplished Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe. Among his more important pictures may be mentioned his Kiss of Judas, 1836; the Alchemical Adept Lecturing on the Elixir Vit3e,2 1838 j the Agony of Discord, 1840 — a great picture, but rather forced and dramatic ; Queen Elizabeth witnessing the Per- formance of the * Merry Wives of Windsor,' a fine work badly hung at the Royal Academy, which, with the rejection two years before of his Achilles addressing the Manes of Patroclus, deter- mined him to send there no more : on the picture of Queen EHza- beth he spent over two years. A year or two later he painted the Death of Jane Shore ; the Duke of Gloster entering the Water- ^ His small picture of Mercury trying the Lyre was rejected at the Glasgow Exhibition of 1834. 2 Described further on as the Paracelsus Lecturing. DAVID SCOTT. 46 1 gate of Calais, a most poetic conception, in which the doomed man seated in a barge, with his two armed warders standing in the stern, appear with their backs towards the open sea and daylight ; Richard III. and the Princes ; the Dead Rising at the Cruci- fixion; the Triumph of Love; the Baptism of Christ; and a picture in four compartments representing four great Italian painters — Michael Angelo, Titian, Raphael, and Correggio, each at work on one of his masterpieces — a beautiful work, exhibited in 1843. Kis greatest painting, however, is his Vasco da Gama, the Discoverer of the Passage to India, doubling the Cape of Good Hope, which hung on the walls of the Scottish Academy at the time of the death of the artist in 1849. This truly noble and great work, nearly twenty feet in length, was the subject of a meeting held in Edinburgh immediately after the artist's death, the result of which was that it was purchased by subscriptions easily obtained, and placed in the Hall of Trinity House at Leith, where it now remains. Recognising the picture as an epic of the very highest order, the object of the subscribers was to retain it in Scotland, and it was accordingly placed in the Trinity House, on account of that building and its associations being more congru- ous with the subject than any other in Edinburgh or the neigh- bourhood. It is unfortunately badly seen and seldom visited. The deck of the ship is represented crowded with figures, in every variety of expressive action of terror, defiance, and wonder at the great spirit of the deep rising through the sea -mist and foam. It was commenced shortly after the death of his father in 1 84 1, when he built a studio at Easter Dairy, in which he subse- quently painted his Peter the Hermit, finished in 1845. Having devoted much attention to the art of fresco-painting, he was one of those artists who answered the challenge of the Royal Commission, for the decoration of the Houses of Parliament, to the British artists, to repel the insinuations of their inability to execute historical works of sufiicient importance. To this com- petition, in 1842, he sent Drake witnessing the Destruction of the Spanish Armada, and Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk, neither 462 ART IN SCOTLAND. ^^^^B of which obtained an award — the first prize being bestowed upon ^^ Armytage. At the succeeding competition he was still more un- fortunate. His principal work was put aside ; his other one wasi^l placed in a disadvantageous position, and, with the fine specimen ' of fresco-painting which he also submitted, passed over unrecog- nised. The superiority of his work over that of many of the artist^HI who were employed on the Westminster works has not been denied; and since his death his pictures have steadily come to be recognised as of the very highest order, deservedly placing him in the very foremost rank of British historical painters. His pictures often remained on his hands unsold. Twice he was unsuccessful in obtaining a position as a teacher in the Trustees' Academy. The failure in the Westminster competition preyed upon his mind, and he is said to have died another victim to the narrow prejudices and confined patronage of the Royal Commission which, like many other similar bodies, under- took a duty it failed satisfactorily to perform. It has been said that he could not adapt himself to his surroundings, and it is little wonder that latterly his studio came to be his little world, where he found solacement in the practice of his art. He pro- posed at one time to paint the roof of the Trustees' Academy with groups from Michael Angelo's Last Judgment ; but the pro- ject, although warmly advocated by Andrew Wilson, came to noth- ing. Later on he painted gratuitously, the material alone being provided, a Descent from the Cross, for the Cathedral Church of St Patrick in Edinburgh. So little was it appreciated, that during some repairs in the church it was consigned to a lumber-room, where it lay neglected, and was sold as rubbish to a common broker, from whose shop its fragments were rescued by an Edin- burgh collector. This work has been badly rendered by a mezzotint engraving. Still another disheartening event has to be recorded. Four years after his return from Italy (1838) he produced a set of soft ground-etchings of groups from Michael Angelo's Last Judgment, along with which he had prepared a paper on the thought and style of that great work. No publisher DAVID SCOTT. 463 would undertake it, and the matter subsequently appeared in 'Blackwood's Magazine' (1840), followed by other articles on Raphael, Titian, &c. He also wrote several pieces of verse and some tales, including one entitled a " Dream in my Studio," published in the now almost unknown ' Edinburgh University Souvenir' of 1835. In 1850, the year after his death, appeared the Blake-like series of designs illustrating his friend Professor Nichol's ' Architecture of the Heavens,' careless and free in point of drawing, but full of strange motive. His grand series of illustrations to the " Ancient Mariner," already mentioned, etched by himself for the Scottish Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts, is as full of weird poetic feeling as the poem which they interpret, and are highly prized by their fortunate possessors. Like most of his other works, there are many instances among them of careless and even bad drawing ; but in those passages in which beautiful form and graceful outline is demanded, the artist is at least equal to the occasion — as in the illustration of the two ascending spirits ; but it would be difficult throughout the whole series to correct the draw- ing without sacrificing some of the earnest expression which they convey. His brother's reproductions of the illustrations to the * Pilgrim's Progress,' perhaps the most popular of his works, un- fortunately have been denuded of nearly all their original expres- sion in polishing them down to suit the public taste. An easily- to-be-compared example is given in Mr John M. Gray's admira- ble memoir of the artist, from which, and Mr W. B. Scott's life of his brother, many of the facts here given have been extracted. Regarding the man himself, " it was his nature to be sad : of a feeble constitution, and conscious of the capabilities of art, he could not be otherwise. He was delicate of build and solitary of soul from the earliest time. Carefulness about his future destiny oppressed him from the first. Long before any real or supposed neglect by the public, or misunderstanding of his very aims by the press, or disappointment in friendship and in love, had vainly en- deavoured to chill his spirit, he was the victim of care and appre- 464 ART IN SCOTLAND. I with ' " hension. Years before he would have dared to exclaim with Correggio, ' I too am a painter,' he had muttered in the solitude of his dairy — From off my brow, oh raise thy chilling hand, Anxiety, slow digger of the tomb. " ^ ill He was a man of great culture and refinement, and enjoyed the friendship of many eminent men. In addition to those already alluded to, there may be mentioned the names of Professors Pillans and Wilson, and Lord Murray. " The large and solemn studio in which he painted and preserved his picture-poems, had gradually become one of the most curious and significant features of Edinburgh and its School of Art, and its master-spirit one of the most individual of Scottish characters belonging to the age in which we live. It was there that men of eminence in the Church, in politics and law, in science, in literature, and in life, discovered what manner of man he was, and left him with surprise, seldom mingled with pain, and always ennobled by admiration." 2 Fifty years after his death his works were collected and exhibited in Edinburgh. The artist is represented by three works in the Scottish National Gallery. The Vintager is a half-length figure of a female standing under vines — broad, well drawn, and fresco-like in colour and treatment. The Ariel and Caliban (not one of his best works) is a strikingly original conception of the two characters which play such an important part in the " Tempest " : accompanied by newts, the monster is crouching on the ground, an uncouth heap, with his bundle of sticks, and face averted from the airy sprite ascend- ing into the sky, and touching with his heel the head of Caliban. The most recently added work is the Paracelsus Lecturing on the Elixir Vitse, a great and powerful work, full of strongly pro- nounced, almost Gothic character, many of the numerous heads and figures in which have evidently been painted without models, and almost in defiance of all the accepted canons of taste. On a 1 N. B. Review— quoted by Mr W. B. Scott. 2 ibij. WILLIAM SIMSON. 465 raised platform in the middle of a lecture-hall the alchemist is perched on a stool, which the straightened action of his right leg resting on the heel has thrust back, till it only rests on two of its supports. He is the very incarnation of cunning and imposture ; every part of his body is expressive of the character, from the twisted feet to the bony lank-fingered hands manipulating the elixir upon which the attention of his audience is directed, and the whole work is strong and powerful in colour. It was pur- chased in 1838 by the Scottish Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts as one of its prizes, who at first proposed to offer ^^150 for it, but afterwards agreed to ;^2oo, Mr H. Glassford Bell accompanying his ratification of the purchase by an intima- tion that it was only by a majority of one that the committee had so agreed. When brought to the hammer at the sale of Mr J. T. Gibson- Craig's collection in 1887, it only realised ;C54, 12s., after which it was deposited in the Gallery. WILLIAM SIMSON, R.S.A. Born, 1800 ; died, 29th August 1847. This was one of those artists who joined the Scottish Academy in 1830. He was a native of Dundee, and received the rudi- ments of his art education under Andrew Wilson, at the Trustees' Academy. He began his art career by painting local land- scape subjects and sea-pieces, in which he evinced great talent, but soon took to the more lucrative branch of portrait-painting. In 1830 he exhibited at the Royal Academy in London a Shoot- ing-Party, consisting of a group of portraits. His success in this line enabled him to visit Italy five years afterwards, where he spent three years. As a result he exhibited at the Royal Academy a Camaldolese Monk showing the Relics of his Convent ; and Cimabue and Giotto, which was purchased by Sir Robert Peel for 150 guineas. He remained in London till his death at Chelsea, exhibiting numerous historical and genre subjects at the Academy and the British Institution. Among his more important works 2 G 466 'art in" SCOTLAND. are, Columbus at the Door of the Convent of La Rabida, the Temptation of St Anthony, Baronial Retainers, and Salvator Rosa's first Cartoon on the wall of the Certosa. The Scottish National Gallery contains seven of his works, among which his landscapes show perhaps more promise in that department of art than he afterwards fulfilled as a painter of history. His pictures, although highly finished, well drawn, and good in colour, are at times deficient in strength. Wilkie held his earlier works in high esteem, and probably, had he been spared to enjoy a longer lifi might have fulfilled the anticipations of that artist. His two brothers also practised art with considerable success. David, who died on the 29th March 1874, held a good position as a Scottish landscape-painter ; and George, a portrait-painter, who died in 1862. yi ANDREW SOMERVILLE, R.S.A. Born, 1808; died, January 1834. )an ot^ Brief as was the life of William Simson, Somerville's span life was even shorter — only six-and-twenty years. The son of a wire-worker in Edinburgh, he was educated at the High School there, soon after leaving which he became a pupil, and subse- quently an assistant-teacher, under Simson, till the latter removed to London. His first exhibits at the Scottish Academy exhibition in 1830, drew some attention to his work, and three years later he was elected a Member. Among the subjects which he painted were the Bride of Yarrow; Bonny Kilmeny, from Hogg's exquisite poem ; and the Flowers of the Forest, a subject illustrative of the fatal battle of Flodden Field. The latter was in the possession of the late Adam Sim, the cultured antiquary, of Coulter Mains, in Lanarkshire. He also painted a few subjects, very successfully, of a humorous kind, such as Donnybrook Fair.^ 1 The British Nation. MONTAGUE STANLEY. 467 MONTAGUE STANLEY, A.R.S.A. Born, January 1809; died, 5th May 1844. Montague Stanley was a native of Dundee. His father was in the navy, and in the discharge of his duties crossed to New York with his family when the future artist was only fourteen months old. When at the age of three years, his father died, and he was left to the care of his mother, to whom he was always most passionately attached. Natural affection formed one of the most prominent features in his character, and his mind was imbued with the most fervent aspira- tions and indomitable activity. His mother having married again, removed him to Halifax in Nova Scotia, in his seventh year, where he appears to have contracted his love for the stage, and where also, from associating with the native Indians in the neighbourhood, he acquired great dexterity in shooting with the bow and arrow. Before he had completed his eighth year he performed on the stage, gaining the admiration of many by his ability, as well as his handsome figure and fine countenance. Among those thus at- tracted to him were the Earl of D and a Lord R , who invited him to take a part in some private theatric^als at Govern- ment House, and on the following morning the Countess D sent her son with a handsome purse filled with gold, which Montague took joyfully to his mother : " Mother, you must give metht purse, but the gold you may keep," — adding with an arch smile, " for me, you know." The character which he then acted was that of Ariel in the " Tempest," and he made occasional appearances during the fol- lowing two years. About this time he adopted the stage as a pro- fession, induced by the death of his stepfather, from yellow fever, at Kingston in Jamaica, where the family had removed to ; and in 1819, with his mother and a younger brother and sister, sailed for England, making himself a great favourite on board the ship during a very stormy voyage, from the captain down to an old salt named Jack, who was often at the helm. Badly off for water on account of the protracted voyage, Montague continually denied 468 ART IN SCOTLAND. himself a portion of his own allowance, which was added to by' the sailors, in order that his brother and sister might have sufficient. On arriving in England, Mrs Stanley and her son spent several^ " months with friends in Suffolk, about which time he showed a predilection for art, his juvenile effort consisting in copying a piopBl ture from the face of an old Dutch clock. It was resolved, how- ever, that he should follow the profession which in a manner he had already begun, and in 1824 went to York, where he was engaged by a Mr Manby. We next hear of his engagement at the Edinburgh Theatre in 1828, where the chief portion of his life as an actor for the following ten years was passed, and where he was a very popular favourite, taking important parts with some of the leading actors of the time with much success. Shortly after his removal to Edinburgh he began to cultivate his taste for art, the first sketch which he ever made from nature being a drawing of Roslin Castle, to which his brother-in-law had taken him. He had some lessons from Ewbank; and in 1838, while yet in the height of his popularity, and, in the opinion of competent judges, with a brilliant future before him, conscientious religious scruples induced him to retire altogether from the stage. He had successfully performed for a short time at Dublin in 1830; also in London in 1832 and 1833, and in the latter year married into an Edinburgh family of great respectability. After relinquishing the stage, although neither reprobate nor converted sinner — on the contrary, always a man of the purest morality, leading an irre- proachable life — he became deeply religious, although never ob- trusively so ; and if some may condemn him in thus acting from error of judgment, or over-scrupulous conscience, none could ever impugn the perfect sincerity of his motive. Prior to his retirement from the stage, he had to some extent felt his way by a partial practice of the profession of an artist in Edin- burgh, and he now sedulously cultivated the art of landscape and marine painting, his success in which was beyond any reasonable expectation, many of his pictures bringing high prices. He also MONTAGUE STANLEY. 469 taught his art in Edinburgh, and when freed from such duties, visited different parts of the country, including some little time spent in Wales in 1842, his letters from which are as full of devout feeling as enthusiasm for art and love for his family. In 1843, feeling his constitution giving way, he resolved to settle in Bute, and merely to reside in Edinburgh during a few months in the year. A short sojourn in Bute so set him up that he resumed his duties in Edinburgh, when he was attacked by a rapid con- sumption : he returned to Bute, made a last visit to Edinburgh in January 1844, and died at Ascog in the following summer. Brief as was his artistic career, his reputation being still increas- ing at the time of his death, he had been for several years an As- sociate of the Scottish Academy, and was universally esteemed. To the annual exhibitions in Edinburgh he was a regular contrib- utor. He was endowed with great energy of purpose, possessed of much versatility of talent, and to an amiable disposition united high mental activity. His widow was left with seven children. After his death, his sketches and other artistic properties were consigned to an auctioneer in Edinburgh for the purpose of being sold. While in course of conveyance along the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, some sparks from the locomotive set fire to the truck in which they were contained, along with other goods ; the rapid motion fanned the flames to such an extent, that before the train could be stopped not a vestige of his property remained, even the truck being almost entirely burned. He painted much in the manner of MacCulloch, although not so broad and vigorously, and his pictures generally were not of a very large size ; many of them have been engraved for book illustrative purposes, for which they were well adapted by their attractive light and shade, and agreeable composition. His life, chiefly in relation to its religious phases, has been written by the Rev. D. T. K. Drummond (1848), illustrated by vignettes engraved from Stanley's sketches, with some of his poetry. He contributed some pieces of verse to a work published by Oliphant of Edin- burgh, and also to the ' Christian Treasury.' 470 ART IN SCOTLAND. ROBERT THORBURN, A.R.A., H.R.S.A. Born, March 1818 ; died, 1885. This well-known artist was bom and educated in Dumfries, wHere* his father was engaged in trade, and his brother was a skilful carver in wood. He early developed a love for art, which was much encouraged by a lady of Dumfries, whose attention was first attracted by seeing him drawing on a stool in his father's shop. This lady afterwards materially helped him ; and assisted by means provided by some of her townsmen, young Thorburn was at the age of fifteen sent to Edinburgh to draw at the Academy under Sir William Allan. After making rapid progress and obtaining academic distinction, he went to London about 1836, and attended the Royal Academy classes. By his own abilities, not less than the patronage of the Duke of Buccleuch, he soon took a leading position as a miniature-painter, and his works at the Royal Academy for many years divided the attention of the public with those of Sir William Ross. His first commission for the Queen was executed in 1846, after which he painted minia- tures of the Prince Consort, the Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Princess Charlotte of Belgium, the Duke of Brabant, and a group of the Queen with the Princess Helena and Prince Alfred. He was particularly successful with his female sitters, further among whom were the Hon. Mrs Norton, the Marchioness of Waterford, Viscountess Canning, and the Duchess of Buccleuch. He fre- quently worked on a larger scale than is generally the case with miniaturists, and on the advent of photography gave up almost entirely this branch of art for oil-painting, in which manner he executed many full-length portraits with landscape and interior backgrounds, as well as chalk-portraits. He was a constant ex- hibitor at the Royal Academy, where latterly he exhibited numer- ous subject - pictures, often of a religious cast, from Scripture history and the ' Pilgrim's Progress.' These were generally of a quiet and pleasing kind, and seldom possessed the dignity and strength usually expected in historical work. He was elected an JOHN CRAWFORD WINTOUR. 47 1 Associate of the Royal Academy in 1848, and although resident in London, also retained a house at Lasswade, near Edinburgh. At the Paris Exhibition of 1855 he was awarded a first-class gold medal, but his work is unmentioned by M. Gautier in his critique of the pictures exhibited there. His death occurred at Tunbridge Wells in 1885, in his sixty-eighth year. Lord Cockburn in his Memorials mentions that Thorburn, with David Roberts, R. Scott Lauder, Drs Andrew and Alexander Ure, and Beattie, got up a petition to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, dated June 28, 1849, from London, to prevent the demolition of John Knox's house in Edinburgh. JOHN CRAWFORD WINTOUR, A.R.S.A. Born, 1825 ; died, 29th July 1882. Wintour is one of the many good Scottish landscape-painters whose works are unknown in the country beyond the Scottish border. His practice was pretty equally divided between oil and water-colour painting — entirely, it may be said, confined to subjects in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, Dumfries, and Berwickshire, with the exception of some bits of English scenery, chiefly in the county of Warwick. He was long a prominent contributor to the exhibitions of the Royal Scottish Academy, seldom or never un- represented — in 1874 showing no less than eleven works. He was elected an Associate in 1859. Among his numerous but seldom very large works may be mentioned his Minnow- Fishers, i860; Near Hatton, and On the Avon, 1863 ; and ''Rent is the fleecy mantle of the sky," 1866. He was one of those artists of whom it may be said that he did not accomplish what he might and what he ought to have done. He had a fine idea of the composition of a picture, and his best pictures are rich and full of fine colour, with a considerable amount of poetic feeling. In his later works he showed signs of carelessness, but they were seldom or never destitute of indications of great power. APPENDIX LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY [Chartered as the Royal Scottish Academy in 1838.] MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY (TILL 1888). Adam, J. Denovan . Adam, Patrick W. . Aikman, George . . Alexander, Robert . Allan, Sir William . Anderson, Robert . Anderson, Robert Rowand Archer, James . . . Ballantyne, John . . Barclay, J. M. . . . Bell, R. P Bonnar, William . . Bough, Samuel . . . Brodie, William . . . Brown, John C. . . . Brown, William Beattie Bryce, David .... Burnett, Thomas Stewart Burton, Mungo . . . Cameron, Hugh. . . Cassie, James . . . Chalmers, George Paul Christie, Alexander Clark, Thomas . . . Crawford, Edmund T. Crawford, William . . Docharty, James . . Douglas, Sir William Fettes Drummond, James . Duncan, Thomas . Dyce, William . . Ewbank, John . . Faed, John . . . Faed, Thomas . . Farquharson, David Forbes, Alexander . Forrest, William . Born. Died. A.R.S.A. Living A.R.S.A. Living A.R.S.A. Living R.S.A. Living P.R.S.A. 1782 1850 A,R.S.A. 1842 1885 id A.R.S.A. ... Living R.S.A. 1822 Living R.S.A. Living R.S.A. 1886 A.R.S.A. ... Living R.S.A. 1800 1853 R.S.A. 1822 1878 R.S.A. 1815 1881 A.R.S.A. ... 1866 R.S.A. ... Living R.S.A. 1803 1876 A. R.S.A. 1853 1888 A. R.S.A. 1799 1882 R.S.A. ... Living R.S.A. 1819 1879 R.S.A. 1836 1878 A. R.S.A. 1807 i860 A.R.S.A. ? 1879 R.S.A. 1806 1885 A. R.S.A. ? 1869 A.R.S.A. 1829 1878 tes P. R.S.A. Living R.S.A. 1816 1877 R.S.A. 1807 1845 H.R.S.A. 1806 1864 S.A. 1799 1847 R.S.A. 1820 Living H.R.S.A. 1826 Living A.R.S.A. Living A. R.S.A. '?' 1839 H.R.S.A. 1805 1889 Practice. Animal painter. Genre and portrait. Genre and landscape. Animal painter. Historical painter. Genre and landscape. Architect. (Resigned.) History and portraits. Genre painter. Portrait painter. Genre painter. Historical painter. Landscape painter. Sculptor. Landscape painter. Landscape painter. Architect. Sculptor. Portrait painter. Domestic painter. Landscape and portrait. Domestic and landscape. Historical painter. Landscape painter. Landscape and marine. Genre painter. Landscape painter. History and genre. History and genre. History and genre. History and genre. Landscape. (Forfeited.) Domestic and genre. Domestic painter. Landscape painter. Animal painter. Engraver. 476 APPENDIX. Fraser, Alexander . Fraser, Alexander . Fraser, Patrick Allan Gavin, Robert . . Geikie, Walter . . Gibb, Robert. . . Gibb, Robert . . . Gibson, Patrick . . Gilbert, John Graham Giles, James . . . Glass, John . . . Gordon, Sir John Watson Graham, Peter . . Graham, Thomas . Grant, Sir Francis . Halswelle, Keeley . Hamilton, James Hamilton, Thomas . Hardie, C. Martin . Harvey, Sir George . Hay, George , . . Herdman, Robert . Hill, D. Octavius . Hole, William B. . Houston, John A. . Howison, William . Hutchison, John Irvine, John . . . Israels, Josef . . . iohnstone, G. W. . ohnstone, William B. oseph, Samuel . . Kidd, Joseph B. . Lauder, James E. . . Lauder, Robert Scott . Lawson, George A. Lees, Charles. . . . Leighton, Sir Frederick Leyde, Otto Theodor . Lizars, William Home Lockhart, William E. Lorimer, John H. . Macbeth, Norman . MacCulloch, Horatio M' Donald, John B. Macdonald, Laurence M'Gregor, Robert . Maclan, R. R. . . Maclan, Mrs Fanny M'Kay, W. D. . . Mackenzie, D. M. Born. Died. A.R.S.A. 1786 1865 R.S.A. ... Living H.R.S.A. ... Living R.S.A. 1827 1883 S.A. 1795 1837 A.S.A. ? 1837 R.S.A. ... Living A.S.A. 1782 1830 R.S.A. 1794 1866 R.S.A. 1801 1870 A.R.S.A. ? 1885 P.R.S.A. 1788 1864 H.R.S.A. 1836 Living H.R.S.A. Living H.R.S.A. 1803 1878 A. R.S.A. 1834 Living A. R.S.A. Living A.R.S.A. 1784 1858 A. R.S.A. Living P. R.S.A. 1806 1876 R.S.A. ... Living R.S.A. 1829 1888 R.S.A. 1802 1870 A.R.S.A. 1846 Living R.S.A. 1802 1884 A.R.S.A. 1798 1851 R.S.A. Living A.R.S.A. Living H.R.S.A. ... Living A.R.S.A. ... Living R.S.A. 1804 1868 A. R.S.A. ? 1850 S.A. ? ? R.S.A. 1812 1869 R.S.A. 1803 1869 H.R.S.A. Living R.S.A. 1800 1880 H.R.S.A. ... Living R.S.A. Living S.A. 1788 1859 R.S.A. 1846 Living A.R.S.A. 1856 Living R.S.A. 1821 1888 R.S.A. 1805 1867 R.S.A. 1829 Living R.S.A. 1798 1878 A.R.S.A. 1848 Living A. R.S.A. ? 1857 H.R.S.A. ... Living R.S.A. Living S.A. *?* ? Practice. Domestic painter. Landscape painter. Portrait and genre. Genre and domestic. Domestic and etching. Landscape painter. History and genre. Landscape painter. Portrait and genre. Landscape, portrait, &c. History and genre. Portrait painter. Landscape painter. Genre painter. Portrait painter. Genre and landscape. Portrait and genre. Architect. Landscape and genre. Genre and landscape. Genre painter. History, portrait, &c. Landscape painter. Genre painter. History and genre. Engraver. Sculptor. Genre painter. Domestic painter. Landscape painter. History, genre, &c. Sculptor. Landscape painter. (Re- signed.) History and genre. History and genre. Sculptor. Genre and landscape. Genre and history. Portrait and genre. Engraver and domestic painter. (Resigned.) Genre and history. Portrait, flowers, &c. Portrait painter. Landscape painter. History and genre. Sculptor. (Resigned.) Domestic painter. History and genre. History, &c., painter. Landscape painter. Landscape painter. (For- feited.) i I MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY. 477 Born. Died. Practice. Mackenzie, Samuel . . . R.S.A. 1785 1847 Genre painter. Macleay, Kenneth . . . R.S.A. 1802 1878 Portrait and landscape. Macleay, Macneil . . . A. R.S.A. ? 1848 Landscape. (Resigned.) Macnee, Sir Daniel . . . P. R.S.A. 1806 1882 Portrait painter. M'Taggart, William . . R.S.A. Living Genre and portrait. M'Whirter, John . . . H.R.S.A. 1839 Living Landscape painter. Marshall, W. Calder . . H.R.S.A. 1813 Living Sculptor. Melville, Arthur .... A.R.S.A. Living Genre painter. Millais, Sir John E. . . H.R.S.A. ... Living Genre, landscape, &c. Mossman, John .... H.R.S.A. Living Sculptor. Murray, David .... A.R.S.A. 1849 Living Landscape painter. Nicholson, William . . R.S.A. 1784 1844 Architect. Nicol, Erskine .... R.S.A. 1825 Living Genre painter. Noble, J. C A.R.S.A. Living Genre painter. Cakes, J. W Orchardson, W. Q. . . H.R.S.A. ? 1887 Landscape painter. H.R.S.A. ... Living Genre and history. Park, Patrick R.S.A. 1809 1855 Sculptor. Paton, Sir J. Noel . . . R.S.A. 1821 Living Genre and allegory. Paton, Waller H. . . . R.S.A. 1828 Living Landscape painter. Peddie, J. Dick .... R.S.A. Living Architect. Perigal, Arthur .... R.S.A. 1816 1884 Landscape painter. Pettie, John H.R.S.A. Living Genre painter. Playfair, William H. . . S.A. 1780 1857 Architect. (Resigned.) Reid, George R.S.A. Living Portrait and genre. Ritchie, A. Handyside A.R.S.A. 1804 1870 Sculptor. Ross, R. Thorburn . . . R.S.A. 1816 1876 Domestic painter. Scott, David R.S.A. 1806 1849 History and genre. Scott, W. Bell .... H.R.S.A. ... Living Genre painter. Sheriff, John ..... Shiels, William .... A.R.S.A. ? 1843 Animal painter. R.S.A. 1785 1857 Domestic and animals. Simson, George .... R.S.A. 1791 1862 Portrait painter. Simson, William . . . R.S.A. 1800 1847 History and genre. Smart, John R.S.A. 1838 Living Landscape painter. Smith, Colvin .... R.S.A. 1795 1875 Portrait painter. Somerville, Andrevi^ . . S.A. ? 1833 History and genre. Stanley, Montague . . . A. R.S.A. 1809 1844 Landscape painter. Stanton, Clark .... R.S.A. ... Living Genre painter, sculptor, &c. Steell, David G A.R.S.A. Living Animal painter. Steell, Gourlay .... R.S.A. Living Animal painter. Steell, Sir John .... R.S.A. 1804 Living Sculptor. Stevens, John .... R.S.A. 1793 1868 History and genre. Stevenson, David W. . R.S.A. 1842 Living Sculptor. Stevenson, W. G. . . . A.R.S.A. Living Sculptor. Stevenson, James . . . R.S.A. 1844 Marine painter. Stewart, James .... R.S.A. 1791 1863 Painter and engraver. (Resigned.) Portrait painter. Syme, John R.S.A. 1791 1861 Syme, Patrick .... R.S.A. 1774 1845 Flower painter. Tadema, L. Alma . . . H.R.S.A. Living Genre and history. Thomson, Rev. J. . . . H.R.S.A. 1778 1840 Landscape painter. Thomson, William j . . . R.S.A. 1771 1845 Portrait painter. Vallance, William F. . . R.S.A. 1827 Living Landscape and genre painter. 478 APPENDIX. Watson, George. . . Watson, William Smellie Wilkie, Sir David . . Williams, J. Francis . Wilson, Charles Heath Wilson, John .... Wingate, J. Lawton . Wintour, J. Cravv^ford . Born. Died. • p. R.S.A. R.S.A. H.R.S.A. 1767 T796 178S 1837 1874 1 841 . R.S.A. R.S.A. ? 1810 1846 1882 • H.R.S.A. R.S.A. A.R.S.A. 1774 1825 1855 Livmg 1882 Practice. Portrait painter. Portrait painter. Genre and domestic painter. Landscape painter Landscape, Water-col- our. (Resigned.) Marine painter. Genre painter. Landscape painter. ■1 INDEX. Aberbrothwick Abbey, 20, 27. Aberdeen : portrait of William the Lion, 19 ; John of, 24 ; extract from inventory of 1542, 33 ; portrait of Provost Reid, 43 ; veood-carvings at, 51 ; destruction of art-work, 81 ; Church of St Nicholas, 174. Abernethy Church sculptures, 8. Academy of St Luke, 1 10. Academy of the brothers Foulis, I2I. Academy, Royal Scottish, 334. Academy, Trustees', 142. Achesoun, John, 62. Adam, Robert, architect, 176. Adam, William, architect, 174. Adelphi, the, 177. Aikman, William, 103. Alan, a painter, 31. Alesse, Alexander, 85. Alexander, John, loi. Allan, David, 130. Allan, Sir William, 271. Allen, Andrew^, 17 1. Alva pictures, 66. Alves, James, 141. Anderson, David, architect, 87. Anderson, William, 311. Andrew, a painter, 24. Architecture, 9, 13, 19, 86, 173 ; ex- hibition of, 365. Armorials, 28. Art Unions, 370. Aytoun, William, architect, 91. Bairhum, Andrew, a painter, 57. Ballantyne, J., 150. Banners, painted, 24, 33, 56, 67. Barker, Henry Aston, 311. Bell, Andrew, engraver, 202. Bell, Robert C, engraver, 214. Bell shrines, ii. Berry, William, engraver, 215. Beugo, John, engraver, 206. Blackwell, Elizabeth, 171. Board of Trustees, 142. Bogle, John, 220. Bonaccio of Florence, 15. Bonnar, William, 377. Bough, Sam, 378. Brechin Celtic tower, 8. Brodie, William, sculptor, 191. Bronkhorst, Arnold, 69. Brooches, Celtic, 10. Brown, John, 169. Brown, Thomas, engraver, 204. Bruce, Sir William, architect, 85, 89. Bruges, royal tapestries manufactured at, 30. Buchan, David, Earl of, 129. Buchanan, Ralston, 129. Buchanan, William, 129. Burnet, James, 268. Burnet, John, 207. Burns, Robert, portraits of, 134, 206, 213, 225, 237, 275, 284, 285. Bute, tomb in, 27. Campbell of Glenorchy, Sir D., 58. Campbell, Colin, architect, 173. Campbell, Joshua, engraver, 202. Campbell, Thomas, sculptor, 188. Carse, Alexander, 267. Cassie, James, 381. Celtic art, I. Chalmers, Sir George, 171. Chalmers, G. Paul, 382. 480 INDEX. Chalmers, Roderick, 112. Chalmour, Alexander, a painter, 53. Charter at Floors Castle, 17. " Cheap " Cooper, 109. Chisholm, Alexander, 277. Christie, Alexander, 384. Christie, George, 150. Churches, Celtic, 9. Clarke, John, engraver, 193. Cochran, William, 129. Coinage, 15, 24, 62. Cooper, Richard, 112, 171, 194. Cooper, Robert M., 385. Cordiner, Charles, 129. Cornwall, execution of, 68. Corrudes, 94. Crabb, William, 386. Craig, James, architect, 180. Craigentinny Marbles, 192. Crawford, E. T., 387. Crawford, W., 388. Croll, Francis, engraver, 214. Crombie, B. W,, engraver, 213. Cruikshank, Isaac, 254. Culross, Erskine Institute at, 369. Cunningham, Charles, 161. Dalkeith Palace, 58, 355. Dalmeny Church carvings, 8. David I., 22. David II., 23, 25. Delacour, 109, 144, Destruction of art-work, 33, 81, 109. Docharty, James, 389. Donald, J. Milne, 390. Donaldson, Andrew, 310. Donaldson, John, 165. Douglas, anecdote of, and the Princess ^gidia, 25 ; tombs, 26. Douglas, William, engraver and min- iaturist, 204, 245. Drummond of Auchterarder, 50. Drummond, James, 391. Drummond, Sir Robert, 32. Dunbar, David, sculptor, 191. Dunblane Cathedral, 20, 52. Duncan, Thomas, 394. Dundee exhibitions, 369. Dunfermline Abbey, 18 ; Bruce's tomb there, 23 ; Monk of, 45. Dunkeld Cathedral paintings, 33. Dyce, William, 397. Earlston Hall, decorations at, 59. Edinburgh Society for the Encourage- ment of Arts, &c., 140. Edmonstone, Robert, 279. Edzell House decorations, 59. Elder, William, engraver, 193, Elgin, destruction of painted screen i Cathedral of, 82. Elliot, Archibald, architect, i Engraving, 193, 214. Ewbank, John W., 308. Exhibitions in Edinburgh, early, 324, I Fairbairn, Thomas, 404. Falkland Palace, 53. Ferguson, William, 98. Fillans, James B., sculptor, 191. Flanders, purchases in, 24, 30, 48, 53. Fonts, ancient, 22. Forbes, Anne, 172. Forrest, Robert, sculptor, 187. Forrest, William, engraver, 214. Foulis Easter Church, paintings in, 39 ; wood-carving, 52. Foulis, Robert and Andrew, 121 ; their academy, 122 ; its pupils, 129. Eraser (the elder), Alexander, 266. Eraser, Thomas, 242. Galbraith, Thomas, 32, 46. Garscube House pictures, 355. Gavin, Robert, 406. Geddes, Andrew, 232. Geikie, Walter, 211. Gibb, Robert, 309. Gibbs, James, architect, 174. Gibson, Patrick, 309. Gilbert, John Graham, 238. Giles, James W., 407. Gilfillan, John A., 310. Gillies, Margaret, 247. Glasgow, Cathedral, 20, 357 ; picture disputed at, 64 ; early exhibitions, 359 ; Dilettanti Society, 360 ; Insti- tute of Fine Arts, 365 ; Corpora- tion Galleries, 366 ; Hunterian col- lection, 367. Gordon of Rothiemay, 85. Gordon of Straloch, 86. Gordon, Sir J. Watson, 229. Graham, J. G., architect, i8l. Graham, John, 252. Grange, David de, 100. Grant, Sir Francis, 408. Greenock, exhibitions in, 370. Greenshields, J., sculptor, 185. Guthrie Church paintings, 57. I INDEX. 481 Hamilton, Gavin, 154, 203. Hamilton Palace pictures, 355. Hamilton, Thomas, architect, 334, 338, 342. Harding, Chester, 359. Harvey, Sir George, 410. Harvie, J. S., 243. Henning, John, sculptor, 182. Herdman, Robert, 414. Hill, D. O., 418. Holyrood, Abbey commenced, 20; altar-piece in palace, 35 ; Madonna, 63 ; intended decorations in chapel by James VI., 71 ; portraits in palace by De Witt, 84; palace partly rebuilt, 90. Hopetoun House, 90; pictures at, 355. Horsburgh, John, engraver, 213. Houston, John A., 422. Houston pictures and effigies, 26. Howe, James, 424. Howison, William, engraver, 214. Hude, Nicholas, 94. Illuminations, Celtic, 4 ; charter of Malcolm IV., 17; psalters, &c., 18, 28. Inchcolm, monastery of, begun, 20. Inglis, Esther, 70. Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts, 329. lona, I ; crosses at, 5 ; stones at, 7. James I., 28. James II., 31. James III., 31; altar-painting, 35; tomb in Cambuskenneth, 46. James IV., 46 ; his portrait, 47. James V., his expedition to France, 48 ; taste of, 53 ; portrait, 54. James VI., pageant at Edinburgh, 64; at Holyrood, 71 ; in Stirling, T^^. Jamesone, George, 74, 102, 171, 356. Joan of Arc, supposed portrait of, 44. Johnstone, W. B., 426. Johnstone's, the laird of, picture re- versed, 68. Josephs, Samuel, sculptor, 185, 331. Kay, John, engraver, &c., 205. Kelso Abbey, founded, 20; charter, 17. Kennedy's tomb, Bishop, 27. Kidd, William, 270. Kilbimie Church wood-carvings, 52. Kilmartin cross, 30. King's limner in Scotland, office of, 69, 99. Kirkcaldy exhibitions, 369. Langton House pictures, 356. Lauder, J. Eckford, 428. Lauder, R. Scott, 429. Leconte, John, engraver, 214. Lees, Charles, 431. Legat, Francis, engraver, 203. Leitch, W. Leighton, 432. Linlithgow, John of, 23 ; sculpture on palace, 29 ; sculpture on church, 30 ; heraldic ceiling at, 59. Lizars, W. H., engraver, 209. Lorimer, Friar Thomas, 24. MacCulloch, Horatio, 438. MacDonald, a Highlander, executed, 68. MacDonald, Lawrence, sculptor, 190. Maclan, R. R., 442. M'Innes, R., 443. Macleay, Kenneth, 444. Macnee, Sir Daniel, 445. Maitland of Lethington's portrait, 66. Margaret, Queen, 20; picture of a vision of, 23. Marshall, George, 112. Martin, David, 167. Mary de Couci, her tomb, 22. Mary of Guise, 15, 51 ; portraits, and paintings in chapel of, 54. Mary, Queen, reception in Edinburgh, 60 ; her portraits, 60. Medina, John, 96. Medina, Sir John, 94. Melrose Abbey, founded, 20 ; sculpture at, 22. Mercier, 97, 356. Metal-work, Celtic, 10. Miller, William, engraver, 214. Milnes, the, 47, 88. Milton House decorations, 109. Mitchell, Edward, engraver, 205. Mitchell, James, engraver, 129. More, Jacob, 158, 159. Morton, Regent, 58. • Mossman, W, sculptor, 185. Munro, A., sculptor, 191. Murray, Earl of, picture of his mur- der, 67. Murray, Thomas, 97. Mynour, a painter, 47. Mytens, Daniel, loi. 2 H 482 INDEX. Naime, J. T., 243. Nasmyth, Alexander, 145, 281. Nasmyth, Misses, 290. Nasmyth, Patrick, 291. National Gallery of Scotland, 350. National Portrait Gallery of Scotland, 353. Nesbitt, Alexander, 108. Nicholson, P., architect, 181. Nicholson, William, 236. Norries, the, 108, iii, 159, 162. Paillou, Peter, 359. Paisley, tomb in Abbey, 27 ; Abbot Tarvas restores Abbey, 33 ; exhibi- tions, 369. Park, Patrick, sculptor, 191. Paton, a painter, 94. Paul, Andrew, engraver, 129. Pavilion, 145. Paxton, John, 129. Perigal, Arthur, 448. Phillip, John, 448, Pinkie House decorations, 59. Playfair, William, architect, 182. Prat, a painter, 46. Radcliffe Library at Oxford, 175. Raeburn, Sir Henry, 219. Ramsay, Allan, in, 114, 198. Ravelstone House built and decorated, 65. Reid, Bishop Robert, 56. Ritchie, A. Handyside, sculptor, 192. Ritchie, John, sculptor, 192. Robert the Bruce's tomb, 23. Robert II., his tomb, 24. Robert III., 15. Roberts, David, 313. Robertson, A., engraver, 203. Robertson, A., miniaturist, 246. Robinson, William, 171. Ross, R. Thorbum, 454. Round towers, 8, 9. Royal Institution, 329. Royal Scottish Academy, 334 j list of members, 475. Runciman, Alexander, 145, 159, 161. Runciman, John, 164. Ruthven, Earl of Gowrie, 64. St Andrews, early church, 9; early shrine, 10 ; Bishop Kennedy's tomb, 27 ; carvings, 52. St Fillan, pastoral staff of, 11. I St Magnus' Cathedral, founded, 20; Earl Patrick's pew, 52 ; added to by Bishop Reid, 57. Sanders, George, 243. Saxon cross, 9. Saxon, James, 242. Schaw, William, architect, 87. Schetky, J. Alexander, 307. Schetky, J. Christian, 306. Scone Palace, painted ceiling, 64. Scott, David, 456. Scott, Robert, engraver, 203. Scott, Sir Walter, portraits of, 213, 224, 230, 231, 234, 237, 241, 242, 258, 273, 409. Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 353- Scougal, John, 92. Sculptux-ed stones, 2, Seal-engraving, 15, 24, 215. Seton House, picture in, 53. Shiels, William, 243. Simson, William, 465. Skirving, Archibald, 169 Smibert, John, 106. Smith, Colvin, 240. Society of Incorporated Artists, 324. Somerville, Andrew, 466. Somerville, Daniel, 213. Stained glass, early, 15. Stanley, Montague, 467. Stark, William, architect, 180, Steven, John, 278. Stewart, Antony, 247. Stewart, J., engraver, 204. Stirling, Chapel Royal, 31 ; pictures formerly in Chapel, 32 ; carved heads from palace, 50 ; preparations for baptism of Prince Royal, 65; Flemish portrait-painter at Castle, 73 ; Smith Institute, 368. Strange, Sir Robert, 113, 194. Strathbogie Castle, 58. Syme, John, 241. Syme, Patrick, 241. Tannock, James, 238. Tassie, James, 135. Tassie, William, 138. Tavernere, a painter, 31. Thom, James, sculptor, 186. Thomas of Strathearn, 24. Thomson, Rev. John, 294. Thomson, William J., 245. Thorbum, Robert, 470. Topographical drawing, early, 85. 24. I INDEX. 483 Traquair's, Lord, pictures burned, 83. Trinity Church, Edinburgh, taken down, 33. Trustees' Academy, 142. Wait, Richard, 94. Wales, James, 172. Walker, George, 160, 293. Wallace, William, mason, 47, 91. Watson, Andro, a painter, 53. Watson, George, 228. Watson, W. Smellie, 242. Weir, William, 271. West of Scotland Academy, 362. Wilkie, Sir David, 254. Williams, H. William, 299. Williams, J. Francis, 302. Willison, George, 168. Wilson, Andrew, 303. Wilson, C. Heath, 149, 305. Wilson, John, 305. Wilson, John W., 306. Wintour, J. C., 471. Witt, James de, employed at Holy- rood, 84. Wood-carvings, 15, 50, 51. Wood, John, 146. Wright, J. Michael, 98. Yellowlees, William, 243. PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS. 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. INTER-LIB^|jSf,Qj^C liOV 02 '93 ctmN — O ill IT REC. ILL OCT 18 1978 KaciR.OCTZ0 78 FEB 1 1 1993 At^ // ,V^ ^ LD 21A-40m-4,'63 (D6471sl0)476B General Library University of California Berkeley YC 226 1 1 U.C.BERKELEY LIBRARIES CD^E^b3E3l