[1] As an enthusiastic amateur musician, he helped the career of the young composer Hamish MacCunn by organising concerts for him in his own studio.

MacCunn, who would marry Pettie's daughter Alison in 1889, also served as a model for many of his paintings and sketches in various distinctive occasions.

[1] Initially, his father objected to him taking up art as a career, but this was overcome following a portrait by Pettie of the village carrier and his donkey.

[1] His first exhibits at the Royal Scottish Academy were A Scene from the Fortunes of Nigel, one of the many subjects for which he sought inspiration in the novels of Sir Walter Scott, and two portraits in 1858, followed in 1859 by The Prison.

[2] In 1866 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, and in 1874 received full academical honours in succession to Sir Edwin Landseer.