This intriguing painting by George Jamesone is the earliest self-portrait by a Scottish artist in the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland. Born in Aberdeen around 1589–90, he was the  first native-born artist to enter a profession which, in early-seventeenth-century Scotland, was dominated by émigré painters from the Low Countries.
While earlier, more straightforward self-portraits by Jamesone exist, this one is his most ambitious and striking. Jamesone proudly presents himself as an artist – he stands close to the picture frame, holds a palette and brushes and gestures towards the paintings on the wall behind him, which were probably his own works. The group comprises seven portraits, including depictions of the reigning monarchs Charles I and Henrietta Maria, Jamesone’s wife Isobel Tosche, a seascape, a landscape and a mythological scene, identified as the Chastisement of Cupid.

Following a five-year apprenticeship in Edinburgh to the decorative painter John Anderson, in 1620 Jamesone returned to Aberdeen where he set up a studio and focused on portraiture. By 1635 he had a studio in Edinburgh, and in both cities painted a variety of sitters including aristocrats, academics, lawyers and merchants. This self-portrait gives us some idea of what the interior of Jamesone’s studio may have looked like. Armour, an hour glass and a drawing of a skull and crossbones feature in the painting and, while they were probably studio props, they may also allude to the transience of life and Jamesone’s awareness of his own mortality.

His direct, confident gaze meets the viewer and parallels can be drawn between this portrait and the Portrait of the Artist by Sir Peter Paul Rubens, which has been in the British Royal Collection since 1623, the year in which it was painted and presented to Charles, Prince of Wales. Like Rubens, Jamesone depicts himself as a gentleman and wears a black doublet with a fine linen collar and cuffs and a fashionable beaver hat. There is no doubt that Jamesone’s portrait was painted as an instrument for self-promotion. He gained considerable social and artistic status during his lifetime and accrued substantial wealth. Amongst his significant commissions were a series of portraits of friends and family for his patron Sir Colin Campbell, and an entire set of 52 Scottish monarchs painted for Charles I’s triumphal entry into Edinburgh in 1633.

When Jamesone died in 1644, he was widely mourned and the poet David Wedderburn wrote a lament in Latin which emphasised his social and cultural status, describing him as ‘that most illustrious gentleman, George Jamesone of Aberdeen, the eminent painter’ (D. Wedderburn, Sub obitum Yin Spectatissimi, Georgii Jamesoni, Abredonensis, Pictoris Eminentissimi, Lachrymae. Amoris indissolubilis ergo David Wedderburnus. Ad Exemplar Abredoniae Impressum, Aberdeen 1644).
 

This text was originally published in Facing the World: Self-portraits from Rembrandt to Ai Weiwei, 2016.