[2] After studying both in Rome and London, he settled in Edinburgh, where he obtained some fame as a portrait-painter.

This portrait was acquired by Sir Theodore Martin and is in the National Burns Collection.

[3] Other of Skirving's sitters were Alexander Carlyle, D.D., of Inveresk, the mother of Jane Welsh Carlyle, Gavin Hamilton, Isabella Fraser-Tytler, Professor Dugald Stewart, Elizabeth Liddell, and John Hunter, principal of St. Andrews University.

[3] Skirving's portraits including one of his father and a self-portrait are in the National Galleries of Scotland.

His descendants include Robert Scot Skirving (1859-1956) who emigrated to Australia and grew to be an eminent surgeon there.