Charles Lees (painter)

Charles Lees RSA (1800–20 February 1880) was a Scottish portrait painter who specialised in sporting and recreational subjects.

[1] He began his career in art training under the eminent Edinburgh portrait painter Sir Henry Raeburn.

Charles Lees achieved initial renown as a portrait painter, his accomplishments leading to his election to the Royal Scottish Academy in 1830.

[3] In 1847 Lees completed his depiction of the 1844 grand match at St Andrews in an oil painting, The Golfers, which has been cited as being "the most famous golfing work of art in the world.

As a portrait painter Lees had painted the true likeness of the actual players and spectators, and a key survives naming them.