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The Tenant's Reply by Erskine Nicol
The Tenant's Reply
The Tenant's Reply by Erskine Nicol
The Tenant's Reply by Erskine Nicol

The Tenant's Reply

Artist (Leith, Scotland, 1825 - 1904)
Date1869
Mediumwatercolour on paper attached to canvas
ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings
DimensionsOverall: Height: 43.1 cm, Width: 33.7 cm
Frame: Height: 68 cm, Width: 58.2 cm
AcquisitionBequeathed in 1893 by Francis Edmond.
CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0
LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub
Object numberABDAG002907
Other Titles
  • The Factor
About MeEdinburgh born Erskine Nicol attended the Trustees Academy and was taught figure drawing and painting by William Allan. He then became an art master in Dublin for four years, where he developed his own style of genre and figure painting.

Here, Nicol makes an amusing spectacle of the pursed-lipped bourgeois landlord - one can only imagine what he is reading in the letter! This use of facial expression had been popularised in British art by Sir David Wilkie's earlier genre pictures and continued well into the 19th century.


More About Me
What might the tenant have written to his landlord to produce such raised eyebrows and pursed lips?