Alexander Nasmyth - Study for The Celebration of the Birthday of James Hogg

Artist Sir William Allan (Edinburgh, Scotland, 1782 - 1850)

Associated Alexander Nasmyth (Edinburgh, Scotland, 1758 - 1840)

Date1819

Mediumpencil, black and red chalk on paper

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: Height: 16.8 cm, Width: 13.3 cm

AcquisitionPurchased in 1982 with assistance from the National Fund for Acquisitions.

CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG008088

Keywords

About MeThis chalk and pencil drawing is a preparatory study for the oil painting "The Celebration of the Birthday of James Hogg" (1823 or 1825). If this sketch seems less considered in comparison to Allan's others in the Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums Collections, it is because it was probably never intended for a painting. It is inscribed by the sitter's son, James Nasmyth, who writes:

"My father at the Dilettante Club, Edinburgh, describing by his finger dipped in his toddy his plans for the improvements of Edinburgh."

From this detail it is clear that Alexander Nasmyth, a fellow artist and member of Allan's club, was not posing for his portrait; rather, he was captured mid-flow, in speech as well as in whisky! Nasmyth is joined in the painting by several more of Scotland's artistic and literary elite, including Sir Walter Scott, the publisher James Ballantyne, the comedian James Russell, the writer James Hogg and Allan himself, who hides in the shadows of the background.
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Nasmyth, a fellow artist and member of Edinburgh's Dilettante Club, is here captured for a group painting of Scotland's literary and artistic elite.