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Scottish painting has little
to its credit before the eighteenth century. The Reformation period made
havoc of the old art associated with the Roman Catholic Church, and the
poverty and civil struggles of the country in the seventeenth were
unfavourable to the rise of the new. This new art takes its beginning in the
first half of this century with George Jamesone, who was born at Aberdeen
towards the end of the sixteenth and became "apprentice" to his uncle, John
Anderson, painter at Edinburgh, in 1612. There is ground for believing that
he spent some time at Antwerp improving his art under Rubens, though
definite proof is lacking. His style at all events reveals the Flemish
influence. He certainly paid a visit to Italy in 1633 which, however, seems
to have left little or no trace in his later work, which includes a number
of portraits of notable persons of the time. Though in his later period
between the Italian visit and his death in 1644 he worked too hastily to do
full justice to his powers, "the general air of his finer pictures," in the
judgment of Mr Caw, "is distinguished, the tone refined, the handling
delicate and charming in its clear fluency of touch, and the simplicity of
his motive reposeful and ever dignified."
Most of the work of John
Michael Wright, who is said to have been a pupil of Jamesone, was done in
England during the second half of the seventeenth century. John Scougal, on
the other hand, remained at home and produced many portraits in his studio
in the Advocates' Close in Edinburgh during his long career, which closed in
lft^ They are of unequal merit, but some of them, especially those of Lord
Harcarse in the Parliament House, Lord Carrington at Dalmeny, Sir John Clerk
of Penicuik and his lady, and the Countess of Lauderdale in Thirlestane
Castle, are highly appraised by the critics. His contemporary, David Paton,
is remembered for his miniatures in pencil, " of great rarity and remarkable
beauty," a number of which are preserved at Hamilton Palace. Among the
foreigners who found patrons in Scotland in the second half of the
seventeenth century were the Fleming De Wett, and Sir John Medina. The
former left a very questionable memorial of his productivity in the one
hundred and ten imaginary portraits of Scottish kings from fabulous times to
Charles II., which astonish the visitor to the gallery at Holyrood and which
he undertook to supply for the sum of £240. A few painted from life, of
which several survive at Glamis Castle, convey a more favourable impression
of his craftmanship. Medina was equally productive, for, according to an old
writer, " he filled the country with portraits " before his death in 1710.
According to Vertue he brought with him a large number of ready-made figures
minus the heads, and the heads he added from the actual sitters till the
supply was exhausted. With some exceptions his works are not rated very
highly by the critics. "Sir John's work," judges Mr McKay, "at its best far
from robust, often descends to a feeble and vapid imitation of Lely." He had
at least a phenomenal success, was the last to receive a Scottish knighthood
before the Union, and left a considerable fortune to his son who followed
his profession without reflecting any credit, in the artistic sense, on his
father. This success evinces not so much a love of art on the part of his
patrons as the desire to have, their portraits done in accordance with the
aristocratic fashion of the time.
An interest in art for its
own sake in the early part of the eighteenth century is evidenced by the
founding in 1729 of " the School of St Luke " at Edinburgh for the training
of native artists, which unfortunately did not live long. Some years before
its foundation William Aikman left Edinburgh for London. He had improved his
art in Italy where he spent a number of years before settling in Edinburgh
in 1712. For the next dozen years he produced many portraits, including that
of his cousin, Clerk of Penicuik, as a baron of Exchequer, and of Allan
Rain-say, which arc among the best samples of his art. "Aikman at his best,"
says Mr McKay, "was a capable craftsman, but in common with the painters of
his time, he lacked the strength of character to substitute an outlook of
his own for the conventions by which he was surrounded." Allan Ramsay, the
son of the poet, received his first training in the St Luke School, which he
continued at London and in Italy. For eighteen years after his return in
1738 he was a notable figure among the Edinburgh literati and was one of the
founders of the Select Society, of which Hume, Adam Smith, and Robertson
were members. In 1756 he removed to London and ultimately became painter to
George III. He was a highly cultured man, with literary as well as artistic
tastes, and had the rare distinction for a Scot of gaining the appreciation
of Dr Johnson. He spoke many languages, moved in the highest social circles,
and corresponded with Voltaire and Rousseau. His contemporaries, who were
perhaps jealous of his social success, did not rate his work very highly. He
produced much and left much to his assistants, and modern critics have a
good deal to say of his defects. To Mr McKay he seems "a mediocre artist,"
though he had in him the makings of a really great one, which he neglected
to develop. The charm which he could lend to some of his female portraits,
especially those of his wife and Mrs Bruce of Arnot, and the virility of
those of the Earl of Hoptoun, the third Duke of Argyll, and MacLeod of
MacLeod tend, however, to raise him above mediocrity, and the critics are
unanimous in their appreciation of the elegance of design which
characterises his chalk sketches and studies.
Glasgow followed the example
of Edinburgh in establishing a school of art, the initiation of which in
1753 was due to Robert Foulis, the publisher and printer, and his brother
Andrew. For over twenty years Robert gave his time to the venture at the
expense of his proper business. The University provided rooms for it. A
collection of pictures, prints, and casts was brought together, and teachers
of painting, engraving, and copper plate printing were brought from the
Continent. But it met with little support and at his death in 1775 it had to
be abandoned as a failure. More effective was the foundation of the school
of design by the Board of Manufactures at Edinburgh. Of this school
Alexander Runciman, who had been trained in the Glasgow Academy and under
the Norries, painters and decorators in Edinburgh, and had sojourned for a
time in Italy, became master in 1771. He brought from Italy an enthusiasm
for historical painting and found a congenial task in depicting for Sir John
Clerk scenes from Ossian on the ceiling of the drawing room at Penicuik
House and from the life of St Margaret on the cupola of a staircase in the
same building. Somewhat theatrical, these decorative scenes, which
unfortunately were destroyed by a fire in 1899, were not without a certain
imaginative grandeur and impressiveness. His younger brother John, who died
before his gifts were fully developed, gave promise of greater mastery in
the same dramatic genre in his treatment of Biblical subjects and in his
King Lear. Another pupil of the Glasgow Academy, David Allan, Runciman's
successor as master of the Edinburgh School, devoted himself after a long
sojourn at Rome to the delineation of scenes from Scottish life, in this
respect a precursor of David Wilkie. "Technically," judges Mr Caw, "his work
shows little real accomplishment . . . yet his designs are interesting as
studies of character and as representations of the customs and costumes of a
bye-gone age, while their effect on Scottish painting was great." Alexander
Naysmyth, who combined the professions of architect and mechanician with
that of artist, was another pioneer in the domain of landscape, and is also
remembered for his portrait of Burns and of the fair daughter of Lord
Monboddo, "the heavenly Miss Burnet" of the poet's enthusiastic acclaim.
These two were the heralds of
what was about to reveal itself in Raeburn, Wilkie, and others—an art that
was specifically Scottish. From Jamesone onwards Scotland had produced a
series of painters, but no school of painting. Their art was conventional
rather than individual or national and was devoted almost exclusively to
portraiture. For this lack two reasons may be adduced. "There was not," says
Mr Caw, "a sufficiently patriotic and national sentiment among those ,\vho
could have patronised art, and, there being little opportunity for artistic
training at home, artists, even if fashion had not prescribed Italy, had to
study abroad, with the result that they returned with the ideas of the
school in which they were trained. Almost without exception the artists
named in this chapter studied in Italy, a number of them for many years, and
as there was no tradition in Scotland, and the artists were too few in
numbers to create an atmosphere, they remained bound to what they had been
taught. But with increase in numbers and with a quickened feeling of
nationality abroad, first one and then another found his way to more
personal expression, and the last ten years of the century contained the
germs of a distinctive art. Henry Raeburn had emerged into prominence and
was producing some of the portraits on which his fame most securely rests,
Alexander Naysmyth had abandoned portrait for landscape in 1793 and was
instructing one or two of those who were to give it character and style; and
David Allan had commenced to paint scenes of Scottish rural life as early as
1783. Thomson of Duddingston was born in 1778, William Allan in 1782, Wilkie
in 1785, and Watson Gordon in 1788, and the appointment of John Graham
(1754-1817) to the mastership of the Trustees' Academy in 1798 resulted in
increased and better opportunities for artistic training at home. Before the
century closed, art in Scotland had commenced to assume some national
characteristics."
Towards the end of the
century the change to a fuller, larger life, which found expression in the
manifold activity of the nation, produced an environment more favourable to
art. The spirit of enterprise and invention, 'the keener interest in nature,
the larger culture and the possession of greater wealth, with the refinement
which culture and wealth tend to foster, furnished this more favourable
environment. The New Town of Edinburgh and the expansion of Glasgow and
other cities were an indication of the new age that had been growing in the
second half of the century out of the old. The work of Raeburn is a proof
that art had begun to respond to a new inspiration in the domain of
portraiture, and that of Wilkie and Thomson of Duddingston was soon to
reveal it in genre and landscape.
Henry Raeburn, born in 1756,
and an orphan at six, was educated at Heriot's Hospital, and at fifteen
became a goldsmith's apprentice. He attracted the notice of David Deuchar,
an etcher and seal engraver, who gave him some lessons and introduced him to
Martin, the artist, who had been a pupil and assistant of Allan Ramsay. His
connection with Martin soon ended in friction, but his marriage in 1778 with
one of his clients who was a lady of means enabled him to complete his self
training by a sojourn at Rome from 1785 to 1787. His sojourn improved his
technique without spoiling the individuality of his genius. On his return he
established his studio in George Street —afterwards removed to York
Place—and straightway commanded success, which continued unbroken till his
death in 1823. The year before his death he was knighted by George IV. at
Hopetoun House, and seven years earlier had been elected a member of the
Royal Academy. He painted all the notables of his time and produced over 700
portraits. Among the more famous of them are those of Dr Spens in the Royal
Archer uniform, MacDonell of Glengarry in full Highland costume, Sir John
Sinclair in the striking garb of a Highland chief and a military officer
combined, Henry Erskine, Mrs Scott Moncrieff, Mrs George Kinnear, and Mrs
James Campbell. Remarkably free from convention, he gave to his portraits
the stamp of actuality, putting in practice the advice of Byres never to
paint an object without having it before him, and he had the supreme art of
reflecting character in colour. "To recall the Raeburns you have seen," says
Mr Caw, "is to recall not so much a gallery of pictures as a number of
people you have met personally, and this is due, of course, to the
consummate art with which the painter expressed his own impressions of
actuality. And the effect is heightened by the unconscious air of his
sitters, who seem unaware that they are being looked at. His portraits are
splendidly convincing—they capture at the first glance; you feel that that
must be the man." |
