This portrait is one of a set, all by William Aikman, depicting the eight members of the Worthy Club. The Worthies met weekly, initially above the Old House Tavern in Leith, and then at Newhall House, south of Edinburgh. Fellow members included Aikman himself and the poet, Allan Ramsay senior. Aikman also included in this series the landlady of the tavern, Mrs Forbes.
William Aikman (Scottish, 1682 - 1731)
The son and heir of an Angus laird, Aikman sold his estates to finance his training as a painter. He studied with Sir John de Medina in Edinburgh before travelling to London in 1704. In 1707 he left for Italy, where he may have worked with Carlo Maratta. He also visited Turkey. Aikman returned to Edinburgh in 1711 after Medina's death and became the leading portrait painter in Scotland. By 1723, in search of new commissions and wider acclaim, Aikman moved to London. The Scottish nobility resident in London after the Act of Union of 1707 formed a large part of his clientele but he was also part of Lord Burlington's circle.
