Jamesone, GEORGE

Jamesone, GEORGE, portrait-painter, was born in Aberdeen, probably in 1588, a son of Andrew Jamesone, a master-mason and Burgess of guild of the city. A baseless tradition affirmed that he studied painting in Antwerp under Rubens along with Vau Dyck. Really he was in 1612 apprenticed for eight years to 'John Anderson, paynter' (see Academy, 14th April 1894). The dates inscribed upon his works prove that in 1620 he practised his art at Aberdeen, and afterwards mainly in Edinburgh, of which he became a burgess in 1633. He was soon in excellent repute as a portrait-painter, and likenesses by his hand of many of his most eminent contemporaries still exist. One of his chief patrons was Sir Colin Campbell of Glenorehy, for whom he executed an extensive series of portraits, both from the life and from earlier pictures, which are now preserved at Taymouth Castle and Langton House, Duns. Many works attributed to Jamesone—in not a few cases falsely attributed to him—are preserved in the mansions of Scotland. His authentic works are painted with considerable delicacy, but are marred by very pronounced mannerisms, and their painter has little claim to his customary title of 'the Scottish Van Dyck.' He died at Edinburgh in 1644. See J. Bulloch's George Jamesone (1885).