A Scottish Victorian: John Stirling (1820–1871)

Newly listed this week we have this respendent portrait pair by the Scottish artist John Stirling (1820–1871). Stirling's potential as an artist seems to have been cut short by his relatively early death, aged around fifty, in Morocco—the details of which remain unclear. These portraits date from early in the artist's career, when he was based in Aberdeen, before he moved to London and worked in a more Pre-Raphaelite style. He first exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy in 1852. In 1855 he achieved some success and attention after John Ruskin praised his painting 'Scottish Presbyterians in a Country Parish Church–The Sermon' (image 4).

Stirling was from a family of ministers, merchants, architects and accountants; the sitters are likely to be from Stirling's circle in the city, a cleric or professor and his wife grandly represented with pictorial motifs familiar from Gainsborough, Reynolds and Lawrence.

Image 3: Photograph of John Stirling © National Portrait Gallery, London

Stock number KB-313