This is a list of the artworks from our collection currently on display at each Gallery.
Works are moved from view for many different reasons. Although this page is updated regularly, we cannot guarantee that the pieces listed here will be on display when you visit.
William Aikman
Sir Patrick Hume, 1st Earl of Marchmont, 1641 - 1724. Statesmanabout 1720On Display
Sir Patrick Hume was a Scottish Presbyterian statesman and a supporter of William of Orange. He began his long political career in opposition during the reigns of Charles II and James VII and II. Because of his involvement in the 1685 anti-Catholic rebellion, Hume spent several years in exile in the Netherlands. He returned after the revolution of 1688 when he accompanied the Protestant William of Orange to Britain. His forfeited estates were returned to him and in 1696 he was appointed Lord Chancellor. Created Earl of Marchmont in 1697, he opposed the claims of the Jacobites and voted for Parliamentary union between Scotland and England. This portrait depicts the earl in old age after he retired from politics. He is wearing an Indian robe and turban.
- Accession no. PGL 22
- Medium Oil on canvas
- Size 77.20 x 64.00 cm
- Credit Long loan in
- Subjects [4]
- Aristocracy
- Beards
- Hats, caps and bonnets
- Politics and government
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.