Biography

John Kay was a portrait etcher and miniature painter who was born near Dalkeith. Self-taught, he originally started working as a barber in Edinburgh but devoted his spare time to art. In 1785 he left the barber’s trade for caricature portraiture. He made nearly 900 plates of almost every notable Scotsman of his time, with the exception of Burns. His portraits give us a quaint picture of Edinburgh society. He quickly and deftly summed up the characters of those living in prosperous Georgian Edinburgh. His etchings of Adam Smith are, with the medallion by Tassie, the only authentic likeness of him that exist.