V.
We come now to examine the portraits of Sir John Clerk, the first Baronet of Penicuik, who was born in 1649; served repeatedly in Parliament, after the Revolution of 1688, as member for the county of Edinburgh; was Lieutenant-Colonel of a regiment commanded by the Earl of Lauderdale; was created a Baronet by Charles II. in 1679; acquired the lands of Lasswade in 1700; and died in 1722. He is described by his son as “one of the strongest men of his time, but not full in stature, being scarce 5 feet 6 inches,” “finely made, had proportionate breadth, and a Hercules shoulders,” “a man of knowledge and application,” “a pretty good scholar, and exceedingly knowing in Divinity.”
No fewer than five portraits—pictures and miniatures—at Penicuik are stated to represent this first Baronet. The earliest is that preserved in the glass case beside the entrance to the Library. It is a miniature, executed on paper with the brush and Indian ink, showing a small head, turned in three-quarters to the left, and garnished with a long wig. On the back is inscribed, in the handwriting of the Chief Baron, the first Baronet’s son, “Sir John Clerk then in those days in London a counselar at Law great wigs were in fashion 1689.” In the same case is a second miniature of similar general character, but drawn upon vellum, accompanied by a companion miniature of the first Baronet’s second wife, Christian, daughter of the Rev. Mr. Kilpatrick. Another portrait of this lady, an oil-portrait, showing the figure to the waist, is in the Dining-room. Here she wears a claret-coloured dress and an amber-brown mantle. The hair is yellowish brown, the eyes of a dark rich brown, and the face, which is a little out of drawing, though curiously individual and life-like, has peculiarly raised eyebrows. This work is inscribed in the handwriting of her son-in-law—“Dame Christian Kilpatrick, my father’s second wife, painted 1706 by Mr. Aikman, when he was learning to paint, but very like”—an early example of the artist, done when he was studying under Medina, the year before he left for Italy.
In the Dining-room are three other works, all life-sized oil-portraits, stated to be likenesses of the first Baronet. One of them, showing Sir John clad in a brown gown lined with red, is manifestly a companion portrait done at the same time as the last-named portrait of his wife. It also bears a similar note by the Baron—“My father Sir John Clerk, painted by Mr. Aikman about the year 1706, when he was beginning to paint.” In its style of handling, as well as in its combinations of colour, it recalls most strongly the works of Sir John Medina, its painter’s master.
A second portrait is also by Aikman, a later and more accomplished work. Here the figure is seen nearly to the waist, turned to the right, with the face slightly in the same direction. A curled wig is worn, and a single-breasted coat of pale blue velvet. The eyes are of a clear blue colour; and the face is of that firm, powerful, large-featured type which for generations was habitual in the house of Penicuik. This picture, again, is inscribed in the son’s handwriting—“Sir John Clerk of Pennicuik, my Father, painted by Mr. Aikman. He was born in April 1649, and died in March 1722, aged 73.”
Very considerable difficulty attaches to the remaining portrait, which is believed to represent the first Sir John Clerk, and to the manifestly companion portrait beside it, which has been held to portray his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Henderson of Elvington, and grand-daughter of William Drummond of Hawthornden, a poet “of an excellent Fancy for the times he lived in,” as the Baron remarks, rather patronisingly, in the family history with which he begins his account of his own life.
It has been stated (Catalogue of National Gallery of Scotland, 1887) that these portraits “are dated 1674.” This, however, is inaccurate, as no inscription appears upon either work. It has also been asserted (Catalogue of Royal Scottish Academy Loan Exhibition of 1863) that “the original Scougal accounts for the price paid for them” are preserved at Penicuik; but a search which we have made through the old receipts of the period has failed to disclose such a document. Probably this second reference is not to the painter’s receipt, but simply to an entry of the payment which is to be found in an interesting old account-book preserved in the Charter-room at Penicuik, one of that “great many journals and writings” which the Chief Baron records that his father left “under his hand, which will, I hope, bear testimony to the regard he always had for virtue and Honesty.” This volume the Chief Baron—partly in filial piety, more perhaps with the instinct of the accurate and omnivorous antiquary—has docketed as follows: “Book of Accompts by my Grandfather Mr. Jo. Clerk, and Father Sir John Clerk, Whereon are several things remarkable. 1o, their methodes of accompting. 2o, their methodes of management. 3o, the different prices of things. John Clerk, 1733.” Here on a page headed June 1674, but under date of “Novr 1675,” the following entry appears—“To John Scougall for 2 pictures £36”; and it is curious, as illustrating “the different prices of things,” and also as showing how a love of all the various fine arts prevailed then among the Clerks, as it has prevailed among them ever since, to note another entry, which appears a few lines beneath: “To Mr. Chambers for Teaching G. and me to play ye violl £150,” both sums being in Scots currency.
There can be no doubt that the portraits above referred to are the “2 pictures” by Scougall mentioned in the account-book, for a comparison with other works by that painter proves them to be excellent and most typical examples of his brush, and there are no other pictures in the house painted in a style recalling that artist, except the portrait of Lord Justice-Clerk Sir Archibald Primrose, which will be afterwards referred to. It has been assumed, but on less sufficient evidence, that they represent the first Sir John Clerk (by whom they were certainly commissioned) and his first wife, and that they were painted to celebrate the wedding of the pair, which occurred in 1674. It is to be noted, however, that the account-book gives no information as to who the personages are that appear in the pictures; that there is no contemporary inscriptions on the works themselves to prove that it is the first Baronet and his wife that are portrayed and not merely two of their friends; that in the male portrait the face is delicate in its curves and contours, with a long thin nose, drooping at the point, quite unlike the countenance which appears in the pictures certified in the handwriting of the son as representing the first Baronet; and that the present picture seems to portray a man of more than twenty-five or twenty-six, the age of the first Sir John when the work was executed.
But, whomever they portray, the pictures are excellent and interesting examples of a little-known Scottish artist, by far the finest works by John Scougall with which we are acquainted; and they afford most interesting representations of the costume of the end of the seventeenth century.
Each of them shows its subject to the waist. The male figure is turned to the right, clad in a black doublet, with richly wrought silver buttons, partly open in front and disclosing the shirt, which also appears at the arms, beneath the short sleeves of the coat; and the short embroidered cravat is drawn through a loop and spread out, in fan-like folds, on either side. The thin, nervous-looking face wears a very peculiar expression; the eyes dark blue, the long yellowish hair curling down to the shoulders: it is a face eminently individual, utterly unforgetable.