Portrait painting in Scotland

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Lord Mungo Murray, by John Michael Wright, an early example of the full-length portrait in Highland dress (c. 1680)

Portrait painting in Scotland includes all forms of

Union of Crowns in 1603 removed a major source of artistic patronage in Scotland as James VI and his court moved to London. The result has been seen as a shift "from crown to castle", as the nobility and local lairds
became the major sources of patronage.

The first significant Scottish portrait artist was

Grand Manner of Joshua Reynolds, but many of his early portraits, particularly of women, are less formal and more intimate. The leading portrait painter of the second half of the century was Henry Raeburn, the first significant artist to pursue his entire career in Scotland, his subjects went beyond the nobility to the middle classes. His pupils included the brothers William (Alexander), Archibald and Andrew Robertson. The former two brothers founded the Columbian Academy of Painting in New York, and Andrew was the leading Scottish miniaturist
of his day.

The generation of painters that followed Raeburn included David Watson,

Adrian Wisniewski. A parallel movement in Edinburgh, focused around the 369 Gallery in the city, included Caroline McNairn, Robert MacLaurin and Gwen Hardie
.

Sixteenth century

See also: Renaissance in Scotland and Art in early modern Scotland
Oil on wood portrait of Bishop William Elphinstone of St Andrews (1431–1514), probably the earliest accurate likeness of a named Scottish person (c. 1505)

The origins of the tradition of portrait painting in Scotland are in the Renaissance, which began to reach Scotland in the fifteenth century. Portraits were given an important role in Renaissance society, valued as objects, and as depictions of earthly success and status.[1] In Scotland this was particularly through contacts with the Netherlands, generally considered the centre of painting in the Northern Renaissance.[2] The products of these connections included a fine portrait of William Elphinstone (1431–1514), Lord Chancellor, Bishop of Aberdeen and founder of the university there.[3] Painted around 1505, it is one of the earliest representations of a named Scottish subject to survive and was probably painted by a Scots artist using Flemish techniques of oil on wood.[4] Around the same time, Scottish monarchs, like those in England, turned to the recording of royal likenesses in panel portraits, painted in oils on wood, perhaps as a form of political expression. As in England, the monarchy may have had model portraits of royalty used for copies and reproductions, but the versions of native royal portraits that survive are generally crude by continental standards.[2]

In 1502,

Abbotsford House bearing the date "1502" has been attributed to Wewyck.[7]

Another Flemish painter, called "Piers", tentatively identified as Peeken Bovelant, an apprentice of an Antwerp painter Goswijn van der Weyden, was brought to Scotland by Andrew Halyburton, the trading agent in Middelburg, in September 1505. No details are known of his work, except his assistance in painting costumes and heraldry for tournaments, but the king gave him a salary and accommodation, and it is likely that Piers made portraits for the court. Piers returned to Flanders from Inverkeithing in July 1508. Some references in the royal accounts call him a "Frenchman".[8]

The tradition of royal portrait painting in Scotland was probably disrupted by the

Mary Queen of Scots had been brought up in the French court, where she was drawn and painted by major European artists, but she did not commission any adult portraits, with the exception of the joint portrait with her second husband Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. This may have reflected an historic Scottish pattern, where heraldic display, or an elaborate tomb were considered more important than a portrait.[4]

Portraiture began to flourish after the

James VI kneeling at his murdered father's tomb, and the life-size portrait of the corpse of The Bonnie Earl of Moray, vividly showing the wounds received by James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray when he was killed by George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly in 1591.[12]

There was an attempt to produce a series of portraits of Scottish kings in panel portraits, probably for the

Union of Crowns in 1603 removed a major source of artistic patronage in Scotland as James VI and his court moved to London. The result has been seen as a shift "from crown to castle", as the nobility and local lairds became the major sources of patronage.[14]

Seventeenth century

See also: Art in early modern Scotland
Self portrait by John Baptist Medina (c. 1698)

By the seventeenth century the fashion for portraiture had spread down the social order to lairds such as Colin Campbell of Glenorchy and John Napier of Merchiston.[4] Adam de Colone, perhaps the son of Adrian Vanson and probably trained in the Netherlands, was working in England in the 1620s. In 1623 he painted his portrait of George Seaton, 3rd Earl of Winton and his sons and another of Seaton's wife Anne Hay with her two daughters.[15]

The first significant native artist was

Holyroodhouse and similar work at Glamis Castle.[17]

After the

Surgeons' Hall, Edinburgh. He trained his son, also John, and William Aikman (1682–1731), who became the leading Scottish portrait-painter of the next generation.[20] Aikman migrated to London in 1723, and from this point until the late eighteenth century, most Scottish painters of note followed him.[21]

Eighteenth century

See also: Scottish art in the eighteenth century
The key Enlightenment figure David Hume, painted by his friend Allan Ramsay (1766)

John Alexander was born in Aberdeen and was a great grandson of portrait painter

Royal Infirmary, which is shown in the background of the painting. Mosman's work included his portrait of John Campbell of the Bank (1749), who was chief cashier of the Royal Bank of Scotland and a Whig, but who is depicted in the recently forbidden Highland dress. Because of his Jacobite sympathies Alexander was forced to leave for the continent after the rebellion of 1745, and in Rome he made a living painting the Jacobite expatriates who congregated there, before his return a few years later.[22]

Grand Manner of Joshua Reynolds, but many of his early portraits, particularly of women, are less formal and more intimate studies.[23]

Portrait of James and John Lee Allen by Henry Raeburn, early 1790s

The leading portrait painter of the second half of the century was

painter and limner in 1823, marking a return to the post being associated with the production of art.[24] His pupils included the brothers William (Alexander) (1772–1841), Archibald (1765–1835) and Andrew Robertson (1777–1845). William and Archibald went on to found the Columbian Academy of Painting in New York, and Andrew to be the leading Scottish miniaturist of his day. Also associated with Raeburn towards the end of his career were John Syme (1795–1861) and Colvin Smith (1795–1875).[26]

Nineteenth century

See also: Scottish art in the nineteenth century

Of the generation of painters that followed Raeburn, David Watson (1767–1837) trained with Reynolds in London before returning home to become the first president of the Scottish Academy in 1826.

King George IV in Highland dress commemorating the royal visit to Scotland in 1823 that set off the international fashion for the kilt. He succeeding Raeburn as Royal Limner in 1823 and would emerge of one of the most influential British artists of the century.[30] Andrew Geddes (1783–1844) produced some landscapes, but also portraits of Scottish subjects, including Walter Scott, before he finally moved to London in 1831.[31] John Graham-Gilbert (1794–1866) was born in Glasgow and worked in the city from 1834, playing an important part in the professionalisation of painting there. Other figures to pursue their careers largely in portraiture based in Glasgow included Daniel Macnee (1806–82), who only moved to Edinburgh after his election of President of the Academy in 1876.[32]

James Hogg, by John Watson Gordon (1830)

From the mid-nineteenth century portrait painting declined as an art. This was partly due to the advent of photography, which could record the human face with greater ease.

Glasgow Boys, mainly focused on landscape. They were influenced by the leading continental artists of the day and broke with Victorian convention. A number of artists identified with the group came to support themselves through portrait painting, including James Guthrie (1859–1930) and Belfast-born John Lavery (1856–1944).[36]

Twentieth century to the present

See also: Art in modern Scotland
Francis Cadell's Black Hat, Miss Don Wauchope (1929)

In the twentieth century, the move away from

Manet's Olympia. Her close friend Dorothy Johnstone's portraits, such as the young girl in September Sunlight (1916), made use of interior natural light.[40] The work of James Cowie (1886–1956), who painted a number of girls in interior settings, is similar in theme to that of Johnstone, but had a more distant and elegiac feel that can be seen in Falling Leaves (1934), which has been read as a commentary as a commentary on the transition from childhood to adolescence.[41]

The second half of the twentieth century saw a general movement back towards figurative representation in European art.

Adrian Wisniewski (b. 1958). Strongly influenced by New Image painting that came to prominence in the early 1980s, they have combined figurative art with social commentary.[45] A parallel movement in Edinburgh, focused around the 369 Gallery in the city, included Caroline McNairn (1955–2010), Robert MacLaurin (b. 1965) and Gwen Hardie (b. 1962).[46]

References

Notes

  1. ISBN 0-517-62336-6
    , p. 337.
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-7486-0276-3
    , pp. 57–9.
  3. ISBN 0-333-56761-7
    , pp. 127–9.
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-7486-1455-9
    , pp. 55–6.
  5. ISBN 1-4051-3740-1
    , p. 449.
  6. ISBN 978-1-107-60544-2
    , p. 159 and J. W. Clark, "Notes on the tomb of Margaret Beaufort", Proceedings Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 45 (1883), pp. 267–8.
  7. ^ Jill Harrison, 'Fresh Perspectives on Hugo van Goes' Portrait of Margaret of Denmark and the Trinity Altarpiece', The Court Historian, 24:2 (2019), pp. 128-9.
  8. ^ Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1901), p. xci, 173: M. Apted & S. Hannabuss, Painters in Scotland (Edinburgh, SRS & Edina Press, 1978), pp. 70–72: J. E. A. Dawson, Scotland Re-Formed, 1488–1587 (Edinburgh, 2007), p. 59: D. Ditchburn, Scotland and Europe, the medieval kingdom and its contacts with Christendom, c.1214–1545, vol. 1 (Tuckwell, East Linton, 2001), p. 119
  9. ^
    ISBN 1-4051-3740-1
    , pp. 455–6.
  10. ISBN 0-300-05833-0
    , p. 32.
  11. ^
    ISBN 0-19-162433-0
    , pp. 198–9.
  12. ^ Waterhouse, Painting in Britain, pp. 48–9.
  13. ^ Robert Pitcairn, Ancient Criminal Trials in Scotland vol. 2 part 2 (Edinburgh 1833), pp.349-351.
  14. ISBN 0-7486-0276-3
    , p. 193.
  15. ISBN 1-85158-251-7
    , pp. 57–8.
  16. ISBN 0-500-20333-4
    , p. 46.
  17. ^ Waterhouse, Painting in Britain, p. 123.
  18. ^ MacDonald, Scottish Art, p. 49.
  19. ISBN 0-19-211696-7
    , p. 136.
  20. ^ Waterhouse, Painting in Britain, pp. 150–1.
  21. ^ a b Waterhouse, Painting in Britain, p. 330.
  22. ^ MacDonald, Scottish Art, p. 56.
  23. ^ "Allan Ramsey", Encyclopædia Britannica, retrieved 7 May 2012.
  24. ^
    ISBN 1-902669-73-8
    , pp. 142–3.
  25. ISBN 1-906261-08-3
    , p. 84.
  26. ^ Macmillan, Scottish Art, pp. 151 and 162.
  27. ^ a b MacDonald, Scottish Art, pp. 75–6.
  28. ^ Macmillan, Scottish Art, p. 162.
  29. ^ Macmillan, Scottish Art, p. 163.
  30. ISBN 0-19-953294-X
    , pp. 678–9.
  31. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Geddes, Andrew" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 547.
  32. ^ a b c Macmillan, Scottish Art, pp. 163–4.
  33. ^
    ISBN 1-58465-036-2
    , p. 15.
  34. ^ Arts Council of Great Britain. Scottish Committee, British Portrait Miniatures: An Exhibition Arranged for the Period of the Edinburgh International Festival, 1965 (London: Taylor & Francis, 1968), p. 39.
  35. ISBN 0-486-26750-4
    , p. 34.
  36. ISBN 1-906476-25-X
    .
  37. ISBN 0-691-01804-9
    , p. 55.
  38. ISBN 0-19-953294-X
    , p. 575.
  39. ^ MacDonald, Scottish Art, p. 160.
  40. ^ MacDonald, Scottish Art, p. 168.
  41. ^ MacDonald, Scottish Art, p. 174.
  42. ^ a b MacDonald, Scottish Art, p. 209.
  43. ISBN 0-7546-6124-5
    , p. 58.
  44. ISBN 0-19-953294-X
    , p. 255.
  45. ISBN 0-19-969305-6
    , p. 405.
  46. ^ MacDonald, Scottish Art, p. 212.

Bibliography

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