George Jamesone

Aberdeen, Scotland, c.1589 - 1644

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About MeGeorge Jamesone is a key figure in the development of portrait painting in Scotland. He was the first great native-born artist in a profession dominated by foreigners.

Jamesone attended the grammar school near his home on Schoolhill and is thought to have gone on to further education at Marischal College. Legend has it that Jamesone once studied under Rubens in Antwerp with Anthony van Dyck. This is, however, not proven. His name does not appear on the Guild registers of the town but since Rubens was exempt from registering pupils, there is no proof either way.

From 1620, when he painted Sir Paul Menzies, provost of Aberdeen (Marischal College, Aberdeen), Jamesone went on to establish a substantial practice as a portrait painter. This brought him considerable wealth and contemporary fame. His practice soon extended from the burgess and academic circles of Aberdeen to encompass the northern aristocracy, and eventually that of the entire country.

About 1625 Jamesone married Isobel Tosche (b. 1608?), who seems to have brought considerable property to the marriage. By 1630 they had rights to five dwelling houses in Aberdeen, though they presumably lived in the rather grand house (now destroyed) on the north side of Schoolhill which Jamesone had inherited from his father in 1607. The couple are known to have had five sons and four daughters. None of the sons survived for long. Two daughters reached adulthood, Marjory (the first-born) and Mary. The former married an advocate, John Alexander. Isobel Tosche remarried after Jamesone's death and lived until 1680.

From 1633 until his death Jamesone's working life centred on Edinburgh, where he leased premises on the north side of the High Street, near the Netherbow Gate. But this is not too say that he stopped having a relationship with Aberdeen. On 13 May 1635 the Burgh Council considered an application from Jameson: in this Jamesone noted that the old field known as the play field, beside the well of Spa, `is spoilled, brockin, and cariet away be speat and invndatiounes.'. He consequently applied for permission to erect a boundary and create a garden (or park) in the area for his use during his lifetime and then falling to the Council and public use at his death. The Council granted him a licence to do this. It has often been stated that Jameson also got permission here to restore the well and build the vaulted canopy over the top of it.

Jamesone died some time after September 1644, when Montrose sacked Aberdeen, and before 11 December of the same year, when his surviving daughters were served as his heirs. Not for the first time he was praised in contemporary Latin verse, this time in a lamentation by David Wedderburn, an indication of the near-mythic national status that Jamesone had attained in his own lifetime.

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