Scottish portraits 1700 1950

SCOTTISH PORTR AITS 1700-1950

SCOTTISH PORTR AITS 1700-1950

22 SEPTEMBER - 21 OCTOBER 2017

The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh

JOHN ALEXANDER (1686-c.1766) Lady Catherine Gordon signed, titled ‘Lady Catherine Gordon aetatis 14’ and dated 1738; signed and inscribed in another hand verso oil on canvas ¡ 30 x 25 inches provenance: Private estate, Philadelphia, USA Lady Catherine Gordon, aged 14 at the time this portrait was executed, was painted with two siblings, Lords Lewis and Charles Gordon, in the same year. The latter portraits hang in the collection of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and hang alongside another brother, Cosmo George Gordon, the 3rd Duke of Gordon, painted in 1735.

Their father, General Alexander Gordon, 2nd Duke of Gordon, had fought with the Jacobites at the battle of Sheriffmuir. He was imprisoned at Edinburgh prior to receiving a pardon. Both brothers took part in the later 1745 Jacobite uprising, though serving on opposite sides: Lord Charles aligned himself with the government while Lord Lewis served as a Jacobite officer.

John Alexander, the grandson of Aberdonian artist George Jamesone, received ongoing patronage from the Gordon family. He established a following among Jacobite clients during his travels in Italy from 1711 to 1720. He painted portraits for the Stuart court, exiled in Rome, and on his return to Scotland received regular commissions from the Gordon Family. The most notable of these was a staircase ceiling decoration at Gordon Castle, purportedly measuring over twenty square feet and taking five years to complete.

RICHARD WAITT (1687-1733) Sir James Grant of Grant, 6th Baronet (1679-1747) signed and dated ‘R. Waitt pinxit 1717’ oil on canvas · 29 ¼ x 25 ¼ inches literature: Malcolm Jones, I, Richard Waitt, picture drawer; portraits of a Highland clan, 2017 It was unfortunate for Waitt that the 1707 Act of Union saw political power shift to London and with it go Scotland’s patronage. There is little evidence upon which to comment on Waitt’s allegiances but there is some that reveal Waitt’s wife’s Jacobean sympathies as well he and she both being Episcopalians. Unlike fellow artists such as William Aikman and John Smibert a move to London may not have been an option. In 1713, Waitt was commissioned by Brigadier Alexander Grant of Grant to paint a series of portraits. This saw Waitt move from his home town of Edinburgh to the north-east. For many years he was to work almost exclusively for the Clan Grant. The Grants were a Presbyterian family which made them pro-Hanoverian and pro-Establishment Whigs in politics. King William III conferred the status of Regality upon the Grant lands. This gave the Grant of Grant all royal powers, bar that of trial for treason, and made this far flung region one of independent power. It only lasted until 1746 but for the duration of Waitt’s painting career this was a place of some import.

James Holloway noted that, ‘No other family in Scotland, or in Europe for that matter, commissioned a similar group of portraits of their clan – family, retainers and kinsmen – and it is as a group, rather than as individual paintings, that Waitt’s portraits of Clan Grant should be judged.’

The sitter of this fine Waitt portrait married Anne, daughter of Sir Humphrey Colquhoun of Luss in 1702. He succeeded his father-in-law as Chief of the Clan Colquhoun as Sir James Colquhoun of Luss. However, upon the premature death of this brother, Alexander, in 1719, Sir James changed his name back to Grant and became the Sir James Grant of Grant, chief of Clan Grant. Sir James was a Member of Parliament for many years and died London 1747 having chosen to remain there throughout the ‘45 rebellion.

ALLAN RAMSAY (1713-1784) Portrait of a young lady signed oil on canvas · 30 x 24 ½ inches provenance: The Belsches of Invermay House; The Forbeses of Pitsligo, Fettercairn House

The sitter of this portrait is unknown though it may be Margaret Belsches, nee Stuart of Castlemilk, second wife of John Belsches, 2nd of Invermay. John and Margaret Belsches married following the death of his first wife, Mary Stuart, in 1739. Margaret died in 1785. The picture appears to have remained at Invermay House since its commission.

The delicacy and attention to detail in Ramsay’s handling of this portrait are typical his work. Ramsay excelled in his depictions of feminine beauty, and has imbued our sitter with a sense of confidence and grace. The costume of this sitter was likely painted by Joseph van Aken, a Dutch drapery artist who worked closely with Ramsay until van Aken’s death in 1749.

ALLAN RAMSAY (1713-1784) Portrait of Mrs John Lowfield Turner signed, inscribed upper left ‘Hannah Lowfield, Married to John Turner, Esq of Ileden in Kent’ and inscribed lower left ‘Mrs. Turner, age 75, relict of John Turner ESQ at Ileden in the county of Kent. 1750. Ramsay pinxit’ oil on canvas · 30 ¼ x 24 ¾ inches provenance: The Estate of Robert Vick and Charles Sibley, Virginia, USA Mrs Hannah Lowfield Turner, aged 75 at the time of this portrait, saw the fortunes of her family change for the better within her lifetime, with her daughter and two granddaughters all marrying into nobility. At the time Ramsay painted her likeness in 1750, her husband John and three of their four children had passed away. Their daughter Elizabeth, by this time the widow of Sir Thomas Lombe, Alderman of London, was herself the mother of two daughters. Her elder daughter Hannah married Sir Robert Clifton, 5th Baronet, and the younger, Mary, married James Maitland, 7th Earl of Lauderdale. Hannah died in 1765 at the age of 91, having outlived all of her children and grandchildren barring Mary.

Ramsay has painted Mrs Turner with sensitivity, her rouged cheeks and bright eyes reveal warmth and beauty beyond the bloom of youth. When this portrait was painted, the delicacy and meticulous observation of Ramsay’s portraits had earned him an impressive reputation, and his prices as a leading artist were comparable to those of Sir Joshua Reynolds. In a letter of 1759 comparing Ramsay’s portraits with those of Reynolds, Horace Walpole wrote that while ‘Mr Reynolds. seldom succeeds in women, Mr. Ramsay is formed to paint them’.

COSMO ALEXANDER (1724-1772) A group of children signed with monogram and dated 1759 oil on canvas · 26 ¾ x 33 ½ inches Cosmo Alexander was the son and pupil of John Alexander and the great-grandson of George Jameson. Cosmo fought on the Jacobite side in the 1745 Rebellion and subsequently fled to Rome alongside many other defeated Jacobites who rallied around ‘the King in exile’. He stayed there until 1751. On his return to Britain he worked in both London and Scotland, predominantly portraying Scottish sitters from Jacobite and Catholic families. For a short time in the early 1760s, Alexander lived and worked in Holland and then settled in America in 1766. He returned to Scotland with his former pupil Gilbert Stuart, the most famous and influential American portrait painter of his time, in 1771 and died in Edinburgh the following year.

There is no positive identification of the children in this group portrait, though Alexander was commissioned to execute portraits of the children of several eminent Scottish families on his return from Italy. His child portraits of John Dalrymple, 6th Earl of Stair, and his sister, Lady Mary Dalrymple, were painted in 1758, a year before this group, and it is possible that this work portrays members of the same family.

DAVID ALLAN (1744-1796) Portrait of a sportsman with his dog inscribed on label verso oil on canvas · 13 ¼ x 10 ½ inches provenance: The estate of Noreen Stonor Drexel, Rhode Island, USA

SIR HENRY RAEBURN ra (1756-1823) A study for the portrait of Professor Adam Ferguson (1723-1816) oil on millboard · 11 x 9 inches This exceedingly rare Raeburn study of the philosopher and historian, Adam Ferguson, is painted with a surprising degree of élan. So little is known of Raeburn’s technique and a discovery such as this can help us better understand. Within the substance of the paint layers there is evidence of the highly individual ‘handwriting’ of Raeburn. The marks that are most revealing here are those that define the top and rear of Ferguson’s head: these consist of a series of quite straight, parallel and interlocking brushstrokes, ‘written’ swiftly, almost recklessly, though with precision. It is a kind of handling to be found in many of Raeburn’s works. Recognisable in the same way is the twisted blob of dark paint that defines the ‘tunnel’ of Ferguson’s right nostril, combined with the shadow cast by the tip of his nose.

In the sketch, the subject appears to be younger and his posture much more upright, suggesting that characterisation was not an important consideration at this stage. The perspectival structure of chairs is often open to question in Raeburn’s seated portraits, and this deficiency is clear in the sketch. Prominent ‘errors’ of this kind should be seen as Raeburn laying in, quite rapidly, a general impression of the full-size portrait that he was planning.

The portrait itself appears to have been commissioned by Sir John Macpherson, briefly governor-general of India in the 1780s. He had been an admiring former student of Ferguson’s and had become a close friend. In 1821, he bequeathed the portrait to the University of Edinburgh – Ferguson had died five years previously.

There was obviously a strong bond between them and it is conceivable that the sketch was made as some kind of confirmation of discussions between Raeburn and Macpherson – a sort of prospectus – as they both set out on a joint attempt to encapsulate Ferguson’s brilliant career.

We are grateful to Dr Duncan Thomson for his assistance with this catalogue entry.

ANDREW GEDDES ara (1783-1844) Anthony Stewart, John Burnet and Andrew Geddes oil on panel · 17 x 23 ½ inches

Andrew Geddes originally trained for the excise office, where he worked under his father for five years. Two years after his father’s death in 1803, Geddes pursued the artistic career of which has father had disapproved, moving to London and entering the Royal Academy school. He quickly made contact with the miniaturist Anthony Stewart, a friend of his father, who Geddes describes in his memoirs as having taken “care that his young friend should see every thing [sic] connected with art during his stay in London” (pg.9).

Stewart introduced Geddes to his fellow apprentice, engraver and painter John Burnet. As another Scottish son of an excise officer who had recently moved to London, the two quickly formed a friendship.

This intimate scene depicts the three friends in conversation in a domestic setting. Stewart is seated attentively to the left of the work, Burnet to the right, and Geddes has depicted himself standing between the two. The three were among the twelve Scottish artists living in London that erected a stone memorialising Patrick Nasmyth at Lambeth New Churchyard in 1831.

SIR DAVID WILKIE ra hrsa (1785-1841) The Misses Mary and Elizabeth Clerk, Sisters of Lord Eldin oil on panel · 6 x 7 inches provenance: J.T. Gibson Craig, his sale at Dowell’s, Edinburgh, 1887; A.B. Yuille, Bridge of Allan, his sale, Christie’s, 1909; Brown & Brown, Liverpool, 1951; Private Collection, Edinburgh, 2016

Rather than a typical commission, this informal study may well have been an affirmation of Wilkie’s past acquaintance with the Clerk family, whom he visited when in Edinburgh in July 1817, and August 1822. The study probably emanates from the latter date. Mary and Elizabeth were sisters of lawyer John Clerk of Eldin (1757-1832), who had commissioned from Wilkie a sketch of The Chelsea Pensioners, and a copy of The Blind Fiddler.

SCOTTISH SCHOOL (c.1830) Portrait of James Metcalfe of Dalkeith seated in a landscape inscribed on label verso ‘Mr Jas. Metcalfe, Dalkeith’ oil on panel · 10 x 8 inches provenance: Collection of a private club, London James Metcalfe was Steward to the Duke of Buccleuch at Dalkeith Palace during the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822. King George stayed at Dalkeith and presented gifts to the members of the household at the end of his visit. Metcalfe was presented with a gold watch. Here, Metcalfe is depicted in a rural setting with a building beyond perhaps mirroring the country setting of Dalkeith Palace five miles from Edinburgh. The site was originally the location of a castle built in the 12th century, which was incorporated into the construction of a large house in 1704.

The painter of this small and engaging portrait is unknown. Whilst sharing some similarities with a painter such as William Yellowlees (1796-1855) we have only been able to pin a date of c.1830 to it on account of the sitter’s costume.

WILLIAM KIDD hrsa (1796-1863) Portrait of John L Toole in character c.1855 oil on millboard · 14 ½ x 11 inches provenance: Lewis Irving Scott, Omagh c1910-1918; Mr & Mrs Basil Skinner; Dr Joe Rock, Edinburgh exhibited: Talbot Rice Art Centre, University of Edinburgh, Painting in Scotland: The Golden Age, 1986, cat. 169; Tate Gallery, London, 1987 literature: Macmillan, D. Painting in Scotland: The Golden Age, Phaidon Press, 1986, ill. no. 90

This portrait was painted later in William Kidd’s career and represents the pinnacle of his artistic maturity at a time when his output was less prolific. The subject, actor John Lawrence Toole (18321906), is depicted around 1856. Toole began his career on the stage in Dublin in 1852, and within a year he had relocated to Edinburgh, employed at the Theatre Royal as the principal low comedian.

Toole was incredibly popular, regularly performing in headlining roles from farce to tragedy. Toole moved to London in 1856 seeking greater fame and fortune in the major theatres. He garnered enough success to eventually purchase a theatre and promptly renamed it “Toole’s Theatre” – he was the first actor to have a theatre named after him.

William Kidd, apprenticed alongside artist David Roberts, was later described by the latter as ‘the best artist among them’, and that his works embodied ‘the humour and pathos of Scottish life in a most delightful manner’. Kidd moved to London in the 1820s and was prolific over the next twenty years, though seemingly unsettled and prone to drink. He was elected an honorary member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1849.

DAVID SCOTT rsa (1806-1849) Self portrait, the artist at his easel signed, inscribed and dated 1831 oil on board ¡ 11 x 9 inches

WILLIAM EWART LOCKHART rsa rsw (1844-1900) Portrait of Alice Mary Polson, Lady Rowallan in White signed and dated 1896 oil on canvas · 41 x 56 inches provenance: The Rowallan family literature: Rowallan, Lord K T, ‘Rowallan: the Autobiography of Lord Rowallan’, 1976 Lady Rowallan’s father, John Polson of Paisley and Castle Levan, discovered and patented a method for producing corn flour, transforming the fortunes of his father’s muslin manufacturing plant in Paisley. William Ewart Lockhart was a family friend of the Polsons, and painted John Polson’s portrait in 1893 (see illustration).

In 1887 Mary Alice Polson married Archibald Corbett, then the Liberal Unionist MP for Glasgow Tradeston. The pair purchased the Rowallan Estate in Ayrshire in 1901, donating their previous home at Rouken Glen as a public park to the citizens of Glasgow. Upon his retirement from the House of Commons in 1911, Corbett was granted the Barony of Rowallan, becoming 1st Baron Rowallan.

Lockhart studied at the Royal Scottish Academy from the age of thirteen in 1860, and the year after was submitting work to its Annual Exhibition. He exhibited annually at the RSA for the remainder of his life, with the exception of 1864 when sent to Australia to improve his health, and 1889/90, when completing a royal commission celebrating the 1887 Jubilee. Lockhart is most renowned for his commissioned portraits, though also painted scenes of Spanish life following several visits to the country.

JAMES COWIE rsa (1886-1956) A Bellshill schoolgirl oil on linen laid on canvas ¡ 11 x 9 inches provenance: Cyril Gerber Fine Art, March 1988

After graduating, Cowie was appointed art master at Bellshill Academy. War intervened, during which time Cowie, a conscientious objector, spent two years in the Pioneer Corps before resuming his post at Bellshill in 1918. Just ten miles east of Glasgow it was a far cry from the cosmopolitan art school life. In the bleak and industrial landscape of Lanarkshire, Cowie found his subject. His pupils became his source material and the classroom his studio. For many artists, teaching can interrupt or even halt a career, but Cowie was able to rationalise it.

In a letter to his elder daughter, Ruth, he offered some revealing advice as a teacher, ‘make your job serve its purpose of providing the necessary means and go on expanding you inner life as hard as you can. From this period came some of his most accomplished and striking images. Self-restraint and alienated and distracted stares define may of his works of school girls as well as the transitional nature of adolescence.

CECILE WALTON (1891-1956) Early Morning oil on linen laid on canvas · 17 ½ x 23 ½ inches provenance: Kemplay & Robertson, Edinburgh

The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh