Thursday, May 17, 2018

Portrait Images from Edinburgh

Anna Maria Braunin
Bust of William III (reigned 1688-1702)
modeled ca. 1700
polychrome wax
National Galleries of Scotland

"William was a prince of the House of Orange, the royal family of the Netherlands.  He came to power in 1672 when he was appointed Captain-General and Stadholder and led the Dutch to victory over the French.  In 1677 William married his cousin Mary, eldest daughter of the future James II of England.  In 1688 William accepted the invitation of seven Protestant peers to invade England and dislodge his Catholic father-in-law, now king.  James fled to France, and William was offered the throne jointly with Mary in 1689.  This unsettling coloured wax image presents the king as a military hero; William spent much of his reign at war, first in Ireland and then against the French in Flanders."

Juriaen Pool
Portrait known as James Hamilton, Lord Pencaitland
ca. 1680-90
oil on canvas
National Galleries of Scotland

Alexander Munro
Portrait of Agnes Gladstone
ca. 1855
plaster relief
National Galleries of Scotland

Charles Beale
Portrait of Mary Beale, portrait painter
ca. 1680-90
drawing
National Galleries of Scotland

John Faed
The Evening Hour - Portrait of the Misses Bennie and Mr J. Noble Bennie
1847
watercolor on ivory
National Galleries of Scotland

Thomas Faed
Life study of John Mongo - professional life-model at Edinburgh Trustees' Academy
1847
oil on paper, mounted on panel
National Galleries of Scotland

George Jamesone
Portrait of Lady Mary Erskine, Countess Marischal
1626
oil on canvas
National Galleries of Scotland

Otto Bache
Study of the mummified head of James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell (ca. 1535-1578)
third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots

1861
oil on canvas
National Galleries of Scotland

"James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, is a notorious figure in Scottish history.  He is most associated with the murder of Lord Darnley, second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots – then abducting Mary, raping her and forcing her hand in marriage.  As a result of the Scottish nobility's outrage over these acts, Bothwell fled to Denmark, where he was arrested and imprisoned in Malmö Castle.  Bothwell was reported to have been kept prisoner in the dark, tied to a post half his height so he could not stand.  He died ten years later.  He was buried at Faarevejle, but it was discovered that the sea air had preserved his body, which was exhumed several times and displayed in an open casket at Frederiksborg Museum in Copenhagen."   

Samuel Sidley
Portrait of Arabella Bray, Lady Wolfe-Murray
ca. 1890
oil on canvas
National Galleries of Scotland
 
Samuel Peploe
Self-portrait
ca. 1900
oil on panel
National Galleries of Scotland

John Henry Lorimer
Portrait of Sir Robert Lorimer, architect
1886
oil on canvas
National Galleries of Scotland

"John Henry Lorimer's portrait of his younger brother shows him working in the Edinburgh office of Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, the architect of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.  Robert Lorimer became one of the leading Scottish architects of the early twentieth century.  Following the ideas of the Arts and Crafts movement, he was responsible for many restorations of Scottish castles, encouraging the revival of traditional skills."

John Maxwell
Portrait of Emma Gillies
ca. 1928
oil on panel
National Galleries of Scotland

William Strang
Self-portrait
ca. 1905
oil on canvas
National Galleries of Scotland

"William Strang was a talented painter as well as a masterly and prolific printmaker.  His etchings include striking portraits of sitters such as Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson.  Towards the end of his life Strang etched less and painted more.  Inspired by Rembrandt, he produced a series of self-portraits in a variety of guises.  This particular one shows the artist wearing a 'fez' – a red felt hat that originated in Morocco, but was worn throughout the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century."

William Nicholson
Portrait of Mabel Pryde (the artist's first wife)
1897
pencil and watercolor on card
National Galleries of Scotland

– texts based on curator's notes from the National Galleries of Scotland