about 1774

PG 2523

John Bogle was born in Edinburgh, and his painting in watercolour is distinguished by its meticulous and painstaking realism. The sitter, George Johnstone (1730-1787), made his career in the Royal Navy, eventually reaching the rank of commodore and is shown in this portrait wearing a captain’s uniform of a type which indicates that the work must have been painted between 1767 and 1774.

• Material: Watercolour on ivory
• Size: Height: 9.90 cm
• National Galleries of Scotland

1794

PG 1478

François Ferrière (1752-1839) was a versatile miniaturist, draughtsman and pastellist, who worked to a consistently high standard of precision draughtsmanship combined with rich colouring. The soldier and collector John Ramsay (1768-1845) was the son of the Scottish portraitist Allan Ramsay, and was commissioned in the 3rd Foot Guards as a captain, serving in the Napoleonic Wars and eventually becoming a general in 1830.

• Material: Watercolour on ivory
• Size: 8.00 x 6.60 cm
• National Galleries of Scotland

about 1788

PG 2472

During his stay in Rome, Skirving portrayed Gavin Hamilton (1723-1790), the elderly leader of the Scottish and international artistic communities in Rome. This pastel remained in Skirving’s possession until his death, when it was listed in the valuation of the contents of the artist’s Edinburgh studio. Later that same year it was valued at 100 guineas by the portraitist George Watson, making it the single most valuable item left in the studio.

• Material: Pastel on paper
• Size: 61.00 x 48.70 cm (framed: 74.93 x 65.40 x 6.04 cm)
• National Galleries of Scotland

1750

The lifted chin and direct gaze of this beautiful drawing lend it a kind of arrogance which was perhaps more to do with the positioning of the mirror than an indication of Reynolds’ character, which was known to be rather shy. The drawing has been described as ‘idealised’, as it only hints at the damage to his upper lip after a fall from his horse, clearly visible in other portraits of the artist.

• British Museum

1765

In this drawing Kauffman is staring fixedly neither at the plaster cast of an anatomical figure she has just drawn, nor at the blank sheet in her hands, but at the porte-crayon (drawing instrument) on the table in front of her. She is caught in a private moment of introspection, unaware of the artist or anything else except her relationship with her art.

• Material: Watercolour on paper
• Size: 13.20 x 11.40 cm
• National Galleries of Scotland

1789

This drawing is arguably one of the finest examples of this type of finished portrait on paper. Lawrence’s deft use of the chalk, for shading and for line, strikes an exquisite balance between the black, grey and red tones of the composition. Lawrence continued to draw similar finished portraits for display throughout his career, and considered them vital elements of his work and reputation.

• British Museum

1795-1796

Robert Burns’s writing has become an important part of Scottish national identity. Burns referred to the painting of this miniature in his correspondence on various occasions during the last year of his life. There is a sense, both in the adoption of the pose in profile and in the elaborate commemorative contemporary frame, that the painting and the framing of this miniature were to mark the presence – and the passing – of a famous man.

• Material: Watercolour on ivory
• Size: 7.60 x 6.30 cm
• National Galleries of Scotland

1838

PG 1000

Alfred Edward Chalon was born in Geneva but emigrated with his family to England where both Alfred and his older brother, the landscape and genre painter John James Chalon, trained as artists at the Royal Academy Schools. Queen Victoria admired Chalon’s watercolours, when she asked the artist if he was con¬cerned about the threat to his business from the invention of photography. ‘Ah non, Madame,’ Chalon responded, ‘photography can’t flatter!’

• Material: Watercolour on paper
• Size: 44.50 x 31.00 cm (framed: 86.36 x 67.94 x 7.62 cm)
• National Galleries of Scotland