James Duncan (4 April 1834 — 12 August 1905) was a Scottish sugar refiner and businessman, who then became a philanthropist and art collector.
[8] Duncan is buried in the churchyard at Kilmun, Argyll under a pink granite slab on a high part of the steep graveyard with a view looking across the Holy Loch.
[9] A memorial obelisk to Duncan designed by Archibald McFarlane Shannan was erected in 1906 at Graham's Point in Kilmun.
[13] The painting was later lent to the Scottish National Gallery by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (who now own it), for an exhibition about Duncan's collection.
[5] Duncan was also one of the most valued and important clients of the influential French picture dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, regularly frequenting the studios of Europe's most famous painters.
[3] He collected works by the likes of Henry Raeburn and Camille Corot,[11] including Eugène Delacroix's The Death of Sardanapalus (1827).
[12] Duncan had a varied circle of friends from different fields, including the chemist James "Paraffin" Young who established the world's first commercial oil works; the pioneering ophthalmic surgeon Dr Neven Gordon Cluckie, whose work led to the establishment of eye surgeries in hospitals throughout Britain; the celebrated preacher Charles Spurgeon; the Rev.
[3][12] Peter Baxter (a curator at Benmore House) noted that “Duncan also employed his significant wealth in helping the poor in Scotland and England and improving the working conditions of his workforce, building churches and schools, providing medical care and introducing an eight-hour working day.
[14] Duncan also had over six million trees planted as part of the large landscape alterations he had designed, including commissioning features such as the 'Golden Gates', which were earlier shown at the Paris International Exhibition.