Gordon, SIR JOHN WATSON

Gordon, SIR JOHN WATSON, Scottish portrait-painter, son of Captain Watson of the royal navy, was born at Edinburgh in 1788. His training in art was got in the studios of his uncle, George Watson, and Sir Henry Raeburn. At first he essayed imaginative subjects, but on Raeburn's death in 1823 he stepped into his place as the first portrait-painter of Scotland. Three years later he took the surname of Gordon; in 1850 he was elected president of the Royal Scottish Academy and knighted, and in 1851 he became a London Royal Academician. Gordon was as national in his art as it is possible for a portrait-painter to be; and nearly every man of note in Scotland, besides not a few in England, sat to him for their portraits. Among his best-known works may be mentioned 'Sir Walter Scott,' 'Dr Chalmers,' 'Earl of Dalhousie,' 'Sir Alexander Hope,' 'Lord President Hope,' 'Sir John Shaw Lefevre,' and 'the Provost of Peterhead.' The last picture gained the gold medal at the French Exhibition of 1855. Gordon was not a distinguished colourist, grays and quiet hues being predominant in his pictures. He died at Edinburgh, 1st June 1864.