Alexander Nasmyth (9 September 175810 April 1840) was a Scottish portrait and landscape painter, a pupil of Allan Ramsay. He also undertook several architectural commissions.

Biography

thumbnail|260px|View of the City of Edinburgh, [[Yale Center for British Art]]

thumb|180px|The grave of Alexander Nasmyth, St Cuthbert's Churchyard

Nasmyth was born in Edinburgh on 9 September 1758. He studied at the Royal High School and the Trustees' Academy and was apprenticed to a coachbuilder. Aged sixteen, he was taken to London by portrait painter Allan Ramsay where he worked on subordinate parts of Ramsay's works. In Italy he devoted most of his attention to landscape painting, and is recorded as having copied a work by Claude Lorrain.

Nasmyth returned to Scotland where for the next few years he continued his career as a portraitist. He painted some works in the style of Ramsay, but most were conversation pieces with outdoor settings. His portrait of Robert Burns, who became a close friend,

His landscapes are all of actual places, and architecture is usually an important element. Some works were painted to illustrate the effects that new buildings would have on an area, such as Inverary from the Sea, painted for the Duke of Argyll to show the setting a proposed lighthouse.

Nasmyth had a great interest in engineering, and proposed several ideas that were later widely used, although he never patented any of them. In 1815 he was one of those invited to submit proposals for the expansion of Edinburgh New Town.

Nasmyth set up a drawing school Another successful pupil was the painter, teacher, art dealer and connoisseur Andrew Wilson, who had his first art training under Nasmyth. Nasmyth was not only the tutor to the polymath Mary Somerville but he also introduced her to the leading intellectuals in Edinburgh.

Nasmyth died at home, 47 York Place (roughly opposite the house of Sir Henry Raeburn), in Edinburgh. He was buried in St Cuthbert's Churchyard at the west end of Princes Street. The grave lies in the southern section towards the south-west.

Family

He married Barbara Foulis, the daughter of Sir James Foulis, 5th Baronet of Colinton, on 3 January 1786.

Nasmyth's eldest six daughters all became notable artists. His daughters were Jane, Barbara, Margaret, Elizabeth, Anne and Charlotte. His eldest son, Patrick Nasmyth, studied under his father, then went to London and attracted attention as a landscapist. In 1810, he designed the Nasmyth Bridge as part of the Almondell Estate, now in the Almondell and Calderwood Country Park.

<gallery widths="130" heights="145">

File:View of Tantallon Castle and the Bass Rock by Alexander Nasmyth, NGS.JPG|View of Tantallon Castle and the Bass Rock

File:Alexander Nasmyth - A View of Edinburgh from the West - Google Art Project.jpg|A View of Edinburgh from the West (1822–6)

File:Alexander Nasmyth (1758-1840) - The Port of Leith - CAC1978-227 - City Art Centre.jpg|The Port of Leith, 1824

File:High Street and the Lawn Market, Edinburgh.png|High Street and the Lawn Market, Edinburgh, 1824

File:Alexander Nasmyth - Princes Street with the Commencement of the Building of the Royal Institution - Google Art Project.jpg|Princes Street, 1825

File:Nasmyth Alexander Highland Loch.jpg|A Highland Loch landscape

File:Alexander Nasmyth (1758-1840) (attributed to) - Pass of the Cows, Highlands - VA.1955.0151 - Herbert Art Gallery and Museum.jpg|Pass of the Cows, Highlands

File:Alexander Nasmyth - Stage Design for Heart of Midlothian; Deans' Cottage - Google Art Project.jpg|Stage design for Heart of Midlothian; Deans' Cottage

File:PG 1063Burns Naysmithcrop.jpg|Robert Burns (1787)

File:Alexander Nasmyth - Robert Burns, 1759 - 1796. Poet - Google Art Project.jpg|Robert Burns, 17591796. Poet

</gallery>

Notes

Sources

  • For an account of Andrew Wilson see "The Scottish Claude" by John Ramm, Antique Dealer & Collectors Guide, July 1997, Vol 50, No. 12

Further reading

  • Skinner, Basil (1966), Scots in Italy in the 18th Century, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
  • Macmillan, Duncan (1984), Scottish Painting: The Later Enlightenment, in Parker, Geoff (ed.), Cencrastus No. 19, Winter 1984, pp.&nbsp;25 – 27,
  • J. C. B. Cooksey, Alexander Nasmyth H.R.S.A. 1758-1840: a Man of the Scottish Renaissance (Southampton, 1991)
  • Works in the National Galleries of Scotland