Firth of Forth

 'Royal George'

Leith Harbour

    The Royal George in the Firth of Forth at Leith  -  Royal Visit to Edinurgh of either King George IV in 1822 or Queen Victoria in 1842. ©

Painting by Thomas Buttersworth

©  Reproduced with acknowledgement to  Bryan Oliphant, New York, New York, USA

'Royal George'

Leith Harbour

Thank you to Bryan Oliphant, who has clearly been researching the various paintings of Royal Visits to Edinburgh sending the following comments concerning Buttersworth's paintings of these occasions.

Bryan Oliphant wrote:

The Paintings

The 3 paintings of George IV visit to Edinburgh are chronologically:.

  -  'Go Antiques' (Thomas Buttersworh),

  -  Bell Rock (late Thomas Buttersworh with collaboration by his son, James Edward Buttersworth),

  -  My version which is most likely entirely executed by James Edward Buttersworth circa 1842.

if you are familiar with the works of the two artists you can easily tell the difference between their work.  In a nut shell, while under the influence of his father, James developed a style that was basically a refinement and modification of his father's.

It was not until he immigrated to New York around 1845 that he became his own man artistically. Thomas Buttersworth's works are crude by comparison to his son's. I

I date the 'Go Antiques' picture to circa 1822 as is compares favourably to a large body of extant work by Thomas Buttersworth executed in the late teens to the early 1820's.

it is improbable that either father or son went to Scotland to view either of the royal debakations in 1822 or 1842. instead they relied on newspaper written and graphic accounts as well as print sources which was common among commercial artists of the period.

Styles of Painting

Notice how stiff all aspects of the painting are in comparison to the later two examples; and especially to the third example which shows James' hand. To put it bluntly, Thomas could not draw. Look at the draftsmanship, and especially the modelling of the vessels and sails.

Notice the liquidity of the water, the atmospheric effects that give the painting a sense of depth.  James floated his pigments in plenty of medium, and his best pictures have a liquid flowing quality about them. both father and son used a stylized sky, but in the third picture James is clearly on his way to developing his American style of sky and atmosphere.

in short, there is a pronounced progression from the crude to the sublime in these three pictures - from early Thomas Buttersworth, through mature Thomas in collaboration with his son James whom he was training, to a James Buttersworth rapidly maturing artistically on the verge of of emigrating to New York where he will become the most sought after marine artist of the second half of the 19th century.

 All 3 paintings share the same basic composition.  All 3 are "formula" paintings.  This is not a knock, as all marine paintings no matter how good or badly executed the artist rely on a set of basic compositional techniques which produce a totally artificial construct that actually appears to be realistic.

The painting by Thomas with frigate obscuring light house on island in background is the crudest when it comes to composition and execution. The frigate is dominant element and focal point. however, cutter with white ensign is in right middle ground beating to windward.

In the second picture the cutter beating to windward is the focal point, she obscures the lighthouse on the island in the distance. this picture is basically a refinement and modification of frigate painting. as a composition it is far superior to the version dominated by frigate that upon close examination couldn't possibly be sailing downhill out of the painting.

The third version, exposes the light house as a focal point to give a greater sense of depth, and the cutter rather than beating to windward is running before the wind flying a blue ensign rather than a white one. in short, version three is the most "

Commercial Artists

Make no bones about it, father and son were commercial artists.  I would not be surprised if there are another twenty variations of this subject extant.

The Buttersworths had plenty of competition, and this might be one of the reasons why James left for the greener pastures of America circa 1845. His father and tutor died in November 1842, and there is nothing in the written record that indicates that he had any particular reason for staying.

 

Paintings of Royal Visits to Edinburgh

  The Royal George in the Firth of Forth at Leith  -  Royal Visit to Edinurgh of either King George IV in 1822 or Queen Victoria in 1842. ©

Please click here to see and read about the Brian Oliphant's Buttersworth painting of the Royal Visit to Edinburgh.

 

More Photos:  Firth of Forth

 

 

__________________