This is an early work by Pettie, painted before he went to London in 1862. It is not based on any known text, but may have been inspired by a description of Roundhead troops in Sir Walter Scott's novel `Woodstock? that was set just after the English Civil War. Pettie had a passion for depicting highly coloured characters, and had a cartoonist's ability to select an evocative and telling silhouette or gesture. The `saint? on the right is the artist Samuel Bough, a friend and fellow member of the Artists? Company of the Scottish Volunteer Regiments.
John Pettie (Scottish, 1839 - 1893)
In 1855 John Pettie enrolled at the Trustees? Academy, where he studied for five years under the influential artist and teacher Robert Scott Lauder. An ambitious and hard-working student, Pettie first exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1858, and throughout the 1860s he regularly contributed illustrations to periodicals as a source of income. He moved to London in 1862 and soon established himself as the leader of a group of expatriate Scottish painters, whose work shares certain characteristics such as clarity of narrative and a bold visual style. A successful exhibitor at the Royal Academy, Pettie was strongly influenced by David Wilkie?s work, and his paintings often depict historical subject matter. In 1865 he married Elizabeth Ann Bossom with whom he had four children.
