About this artwork
Moray-born Francis Grant trained as a lawyer at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, between 1684 and 1687. He returned to Scotland where he was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates and afterwards established a flourishing legal practice. In 1709 he was appointed Lord of Session – a judge in the Scottish Supreme Court – and took the title Lord Cullen. A devout Presbyterian and an outspoken unionist, Lord Cullen was also famous for his unclear and chaotic style of writing and pleading at the bar. This half-length portrait is one of John Smibert’s earliest surviving works. Lord Cullen wears the crimson robes and periwig of a Lord of Session. During the early 1700s, the fashion for periwigs reached its peak but by the 1750s only clergymen and judges continued to wear these long wigs.
Updated before 2020
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artist:John Smibert (1688 - 1751) Scottish
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title:Sir Francis Grant, Lord Cullen, 1658 - 1726. Judge
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date created:About 1720
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materials:Oil on canvas
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measurements:76.50 x 63.50 cm; Framed: 91.50 x 78.50 x 6.80 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Purchased 1949
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accession number:PG 1521
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gallery:
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depicted:
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subject:
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artwork photographed by:Antonia Reeve
John Smibert
John Smibert
The son of an Edinburgh wool dyer, John Smibert was apprenticed to a house painter and plasterer before training as an artist in London from 1713. He returned to Edinburgh two years later and soon completed his first portrait commissions. After a stay of three years in Italy during which time he...
