Portrait painting in Scotland
It began to flourish after the Reformation, with paintings of royal figures and nobles by Netherlands artists Hans Eworth, Arnold Bronckorst and Adrian Vanson.
The leading portrait painter of the second half of the century was Henry Raeburn, the first significant artist to pursue his entire career in Scotland, his subjects went beyond the nobility to the middle classes.
Major figures who worked in portraiture and came to prominence in the second half of the century included Francis Grant, Robert Scott Lauder, William Quiller Orchardson and John Pettie.
Artists who continued to pursue portraiture included Francis Cadell, Cecile Walton, Dorothy Johnstone and James Cowie.
[2] The products of these connections included a fine portrait of William Elphinstone (1431–1514), Lord Chancellor, Bishop of Aberdeen and founder of the university there.
No details are known of his work, except his assistance in painting costumes and heraldry for tournaments, but the king gave him a salary and accommodation, and it is likely that Piers made portraits for the court.
Examples include the Darnley memorial portrait, which shows the young James VI kneeling at his murdered father's tomb, and the life-size portrait of the corpse of The Bonnie Earl of Moray, vividly showing the wounds received by James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray when he was killed by George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly in 1591.
[9] He employed two Flemish artists, Arnold Bronckorst in the early 1580s and Adrian Vanson from around 1584 to 1602, who have left a visual record of the king and major figures at the court.
[13] However, the Union of Crowns in 1603 removed a major source of artistic patronage in Scotland as James VI and his court moved to London.
[14] By the seventeenth century the fashion for portraiture had spread down the social order to lairds such as Colin Campbell of Glenorchy and John Napier of Merchiston.
[15] The first significant native artist was George Jamesone of Aberdeen (1589/90–1644), who, having trained in the Netherlands, became one of the most successful portrait painters of the reign of Charles I.
Wright painted both Scottish and English subjects,[11] including his sensitive portrait of the architect William Bruce (1664) and styled himself as "king's painter".
His full-length painting of Lord Mungo Murray in Highland dress (c. 1680) is an early example of what became a standard format of Scottish portrait.
[22] Allan Ramsay (1713–84) studied in Sweden, London and Italy before basing himself in Edinburgh, where he established himself as a leading portrait painter to the Scottish nobility.
He undertook portraits of many of the major figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, including his friend the philosopher David Hume and the visiting Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
He now focused on royal portraits, often presented by the king to ambassadors and colonial governors, but also more intimate works like that of Queen Charlotte and her Children (c. 1755).
His work has been seen as anticipating the Grand Manner of Joshua Reynolds, but many of his early portraits, particularly of women, are less formal and more intimate studies.
Born in Edinburgh and returning there after a trip to Italy in 1786, he is most famous for his intimate portraits of leading figures in Scottish life, going beyond the aristocracy to lawyers, doctors, professors, writers and ministers,[24] adding elements of Romanticism to the Grand Manner tradition.
[27] The influence of both Reynolds and Raeburn can be seen in his work, including A Girl Drawing (1813) and the large group portrait The Children of the Earl of Elgin with their Nurse (c.
[29] David Wilkie (1785–1841) worked mainly in London, and produced the flattering painting of the King George IV in Highland dress commemorating the royal visit to Scotland in 1823 that set off the international fashion for the kilt.
[30] Andrew Geddes (1783–1844) produced some landscapes, but also portraits of Scottish subjects, including Walter Scott, before he finally moved to London in 1831.
Other figures to pursue their careers largely in portraiture based in Glasgow included Daniel Macnee (1806–82), who only moved to Edinburgh after his election of President of the Academy in 1876.
From the 1840s John Watson Gordon's work began to be influenced by early photography, with cool light and muted colours, as can be seen in his full-length portrait of Principal Lee (1847).
[32] Major figures who worked in portraiture and came to prominence in the second half of the century included Francis Grant, who became the first Scottish president of the Royal Academy in London, Robert Scott Lauder (1803–69), William Quiller Orchardson (1832–1910) and John Pettie (1839–93).
A number of artists identified with the group came to support themselves through portrait painting, including James Guthrie (1859–1930) and Belfast-born John Lavery (1856–1944).
[38] Of their number Francis Cadell (1883–1937), emerged as a significant painter of still lives and single figure compositions, particularly with interior backdrops, before moving closer to abstraction.
[39] Of the next significant movement, known as The Edinburgh School, Cecile Walton (1891–1956) referenced classical forms, particularly in her ironic self-portrait Romance (1920), which draws on Titian's Venus of Urbino and Manet's Olympia.
Her close friend Dorothy Johnstone's portraits, such as the young girl in September Sunlight (1916), made use of interior natural light.
