pre-1800 Highlander portraits

[DCampbell16B]

John "The Bank" Campbell by William Mosman, 1759
https://www.natwestgroup.com/heritag...rait-1759.html

The painting was not on display when I visited in 1983. The pulled it out of storage and allowed to take detailed photographs. Figheadair was able to recreate the tartan, if I'm not mistaken


Pryse Campbell, Portrait by Francis Cotes, date (I don't know, mid-18th C) Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pryse_Campbell

I also surreptitiously got a photo of this portrait at Cawdor Castle.

[OC Richard]

Thanks!

Sorry that I forgot to mention it, but I was only listing full length portraits, due to my using these to trace the history of Highland Dress including footwear. So there were a number of, for example, Grant 1/2 portraits not on my list.

But Pryse Campbell needs to be added! It's a beautiful 3/4 portrait and it's a great record showing the sporran of that time.

[DCampbell16B]

John the Bank is 3/4 as well (depends on which site you're looking at). Hesketh's book has a good image. The coat skirts are old enough style that the sporran is mostly covered.

@figheadair is there a similarity of the kilt material between the Pryse Campbell portrait and of John the Bank?

[figheadair]

John the Bank is 3/4 as well (depends on which site you're looking at). Hesketh's book has a good image. The coat skirts are old enough style that the sporran is mostly covered.

@figheadair is there a similarity of the kilt material between the Pryse Campbell portrait and of John the Bank?

Beyond both being predominantly red, not really.

[figheadair]

c.1710 - Portrait of a Highlander, Richard Waitt

c.1730 - John Stuart 3rd Earl of Bute by William Aikman

c.1735-45 - A Jacobite Group in St James Park by Peter John van Reysschoot

c.1745-6 - Lord George Murray (at Blair Castle)

c.1750 - Figures from the wall painting at Loevestein Castle, Netherlands

1756 - James Francis Edward Moray, Yr of Abercairney by William Mosman

1766 - Hon William Gordon by Botinelli

c.1790 - Alasdair Ranaldson MacDonell, 15th Chief of Glengarry by Angelica Kauffmann

[OC Richard]

c.1710 - Portrait of a Highlander, Richard Waitt

c.1730 - John Stuart 3rd Earl of Bute by William Aikman

c.1735-45 - A Jacobite Group in St James Park by Peter John van Reysschoot

c.1745-6 - Lord George Murray (at Blair Castle)

c.1750 - Figures from the wall painting at Loevestein Castle, Netherlands

1756 - James Francis Edward Moray, Yr of Abercairney by William Mosman

1766 - Hon William Gordon by Botinelli

c.1790 - Alasdair Ranaldson MacDonell, 15th Chief of Glengarry by Angelica Kauffmann

Thanks! I knew I had missed some.

So what's the thing with the Lord George Murray portrait? (If such it can rightly be called.)

John Telfer Dunbar says

"His portrait, in a white shirt and stock, plain coat, and waistcoat was painted by Jeremiah Davidson.

There is, however, at Blair Castle, a picture of Jacobite Highlanders the central figure of which appears to be Lord George Murray, copied from the Davidson portrait.

In 1745 he would have been 51 years of age, and the man in the Blair Castle portrait certainly looks younger.

In 1894 the Duke of Atholl was unable to trace any history or tradition attached to the picture."

This sounds much like the Prince Charles "propaganda pictures" as Dunbar calls them, earlier portraits done from life of Charlies in ordinary dress which around the '45 were copied and altered to show him in Highland Dress. Evidently Charles never sat for a portrait in Highland Dress.

[DCampbell16B]

Beyond both being predominantly red, not really.

Thank you.

[OC Richard]

John the Bank is 3/4 as well (depends on which site you're looking at). Hesketh's book has a good image.

Thanks for directing my attention to Hesketh, where I saw some portraits that aren't in Dunbar.

[Allan Thomson]

John "The Bank" Campbell by William Mosman, 1759
https://www.natwestgroup.com/heritag...rait-1759.html

The painting was not on display when I visited in 1983. The pulled it out of storage and allowed to take detailed photographs. Figheadair was able to recreate the tartan, if I'm not mistaken


Pryse Campbell, Portrait by Francis Cotes, date (I don't know, mid-18th C) Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pryse_Campbell

I also surreptitiously got a photo of this portrait at Cawdor Castle.

Curious as an aside in the NatWest text it states his background implies he was Jacobite. Wasthis just an assumption as his family name implies to me he was unlikely to be a jacobite or is there something else that implies this?

[figheadair]

Curious as an aside in the NatWest text it states his background implies he was Jacobite. Wasthis just an assumption as his family name implies to me he was unlikely to be a jacobite or is there something else that implies this?

The Natwest statement is the result of a deductive error based on the myth of the tartan ban following the last Jacobite Rising.

I have written to their archivist to point our that Highland Clothes, for some men, in the Highlands, were forbidden, not tartan. I also pointed out that it therefore follows that the fact the Campbell was wearing tartan does not necessarily imply that he was a closet Jacobite and that there are contemporary portraits of a number of prominent Hanoverian supporters wearing Highland Dress too. They chose to be painted in it to highlight their Highland credentials rather than any Jacobite proclivities.

Hopefully they will correct the information shortly.