Miles Barton, ‘Sir John de Medina’s portrait of the 1st

text © the authors 2014

Miles Barton, ‘Sir John de Medina’s portrait of the 1st Duke of Montrose, Regent to George I’, The Georgian Group Journal, Vol. xxII, 2014, pp. 35–44

John Baptiste de Medina (‒) (Fig. ) was areluctant visitor to Edinburgh. An artist from the

Low Countries with a successful portrait practice incentral London, he can hardly have found inspiringthe prospect of travelling the entire length of thecountry by draughty carriage, still less the prospectof staying in and around the Scottish capital, anovercrowded, insanitary backwater by comparison toLondon. Like other northern European artistsMedina had settled in the English capital after theRestoration and had profited from the renaissance ofartistic endeavour that flourished under Charles IIand his brother James. The last decades of theseventeenth century saw an increasing number offoreign artists, particularly portrait painters, arrive inLondon seeking employment, and whilst there wasundoubted competition, none more so than from theruling master of the genre Godfrey Kneller(‒), Medina seems to have settled in wellwith his young family and was making a comfortableliving, having left Brussels in .

M E D I N A I N L O N D O N A N D E D I N B U R G H

Perhaps as testimony to his growing importancewithin London’s artistic community, the publisherJacob Tonson turned to Medina when he wanted toprint the first illustrated version of Milton’s ParadiseLost in . This early, important, commission nodoubt helped the artist become better known

amongst a wider, more influential circle, thetransition from oil paint to pen and ink for engravingpresenting little problem as he strove at the sametime to enlarge his portrait practice. Archibald, firstDuke of Argyll, was an early patron, having a full-length portrait with his two sons painted around (Fig. ). George, Earl of Melville and his sonDavid, third Earl of Leven, also had impressive

T H E G E O R G I A N G R O U P J O U R N A L V O L U M E X X I I

SIR JOHN DE MEDINA’S PORTRAIT OF THE FIRST DUKE OF MONTROSE,

REGENT TO GEORGE I

M I L E S B A R T O N

Fig. : Sir John Baptiste de Medina: Self Portrait, , oil on canvas, � cm

(Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh)

Court, Melville was to prove a valuable client, havingbeen initially appointed the only Secretary of Statefor Scotland. Whilst the Earl’s influence led nodoubt to increased interest in Medina’s studio byother members of the Scottish aristocracy, it was tobe his wife’s cousin – the Duke of Montrose’s aunt,Margaret, Countess of Rothes – who proved crucialin persuading Medina northwards. Haranguing her

three-quarter lengths painted in (ScottishNational Portrait Gallery). It seems likely that theseScottish noblemen frequented Medina’s Drury Lanestudio because they had encountered the artistwhilst political exiles in Holland, and, arriving withWilliam, Prince of Orange, in , favoured himover Kneller – who charged considerably more forthe same type of portrait. An insider to the new royal

S I R J O H N D E M E D I N A’ S P O R T R A I T O F T H E F I R S T D U K E O F M O N T R O S E


Fig. : Archibald, 1st Duke ofArgyll, with his two sons, oil on canvas � cm(His Grace the Duke of Argyll)

the Countess hoped that, once Medina finally arrivedin Edinburgh, he would realise the opportunitiesopen to him and stay. If these were indeed herintentions, then she need not have worried, as that isprecisely what he did.The Scottish nobility enthusiastically flocked to

Medina, resulting in his initial visit being anunqualified success, both financially and socially. It seems that his only true competition was from theDutchman Jacob de Wet (‒), who producedthe outstanding High Baroque portrait of John, firstMarquess of Atholl in (Blair Castle, Perthshire),but he had returned to Haarlem in . ThereforeMedina’s studio became a frequent haunt of all themost notable aristocrats who by word of mouth werecoming in increasing numbers. Kinship wasimportant, and family connections amongst thenobility very close, so patronage by one familyinevitably led quickly to patronage by another.

relatives, particularly Melville, when initial overtureswere less than enthusiastically received by the artist,she finally achieved her aim in the autumn of .

‘Medina intends to come to Scotland with my Lordupon these conditions, that there is a probability thathe will get half lengths to doe or three quartersand £ for the on[e] and for the other besides theframs . . .This is no price in comparison to Kneller forhe takes £ and £. I wish you would give yourselfthe trouble to show My Lady Rothes (who desired meto doe what I could to persuade him to come toScotland) that he is coming and she and you may makea guess what number of pictors may be taken from himby your relations, and of what sises, that he may bothsee if it be worth his while to goe, and make provisionsaccording to his work. He is only to stay so long as todoe all the faces of his pictors.’

What is clear from this correspondence is that thepainter only intended to visit to fulfil the task in handand then return to London where he had a houseand family. The Countess was a shrewd woman andno doubt had other ideas. Mindful of the fact thatEdinburgh was practically barren of any worthwhilenative talent, it seems likely that her intention was toentice Medina for good. Swathes of the Scottisharistocracy had yet to be rendered for posterity andquite naturally had shied away from the slightlyparochial efforts of John Scougall (‒) andthe visiting German, Schunneman (fl.‒).The Countess desired an artist to deliver the gracefulBaroque style of portraiture that was so easily to behad in London but was virtually unheard of north ofthe border. Like so many ladies born or married tothe Scots aristocracy, she found that, whilst herhusband could visit the studio of a quality painterwhilst down south on business, the opportunity forher to do the same was extremely unlikely. Thearduous nature of the journey, coupled with otherconsiderations such as pregnancy and a delicacy ofconstitution, meant that many aristocratic ladies ofthis period were unlikely to journey in such amanner more than a handful of times in their lives.Given these considerations, it is quite possible that



Fig. : James Graham, 1st Duke of Montrose, oil oncanvas, � cm (Private Collection, England)

to Christian Carnegie, second daughter of thethird Earl of Northesk, his power and influenceacross the Lowlands of Scotland was immense.Despite this, he still sought to augment his position,and made large property purchases from the Duke ofLennox, including many jurisdictions, among themthe hereditary Sheriffdom of Dumbarton, theCustodianship of Dumbarton Castle, and thejurisdiction of the Regality of Lennox. It has been suggested that the costs involved in

this activity influenced and necessitated Montrose’spolitical decision-making, the salaries of officeproviding a crucial flow of money. Either way, inFebruary 1705 , within a year of Medina finishing hisportrait, Queen Anne appointed him High Admiralof Scotland; a year later he was made President of theCouncil. The Jacobite writer George Lockhartobserved: ‘being of an easy, mean-spirited temper,governed by his mother and her relations (the familyof Rothes) and extremely covetous, he could notresist the first temptation the Court threw in his way.’

Montrose consistently supported the Union and theProtestant succession, and was ultimately rewardedfor his services by being advanced to the rank ofDuke in April . He was one of the sixteen Scotsrepresentative peers chosen by the last Parliament ofScotland, in February , coincidently at the sametime as John de Medina received his knighthood, thelast to be granted in an independent Scotland. Higheroffice continued to beckon, and in February hewas appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland,later being removed in for not complying withthe Tory administration. In Medina’s portrait Montrose is captured as a

confident young man, his features and pale skintones, almost slivery grey, contrasting with hisvoluminous wig, the curls of which are vigorouslysketched over a blue-grey ground (Fig. ). Theconfident application of paint, impasto in places yetthin and smooth elsewhere, together with a stronguse of colour, displays a mastery of technique.Swathed in a bronze-coloured mantle, his somewhat

We cannot know precisely at what point in

Medina decided that he had to stay in Scotland, butit seems that his unrivalled position as Edinburgh’spre-eminent portrait painter, a status so swiftlyattained, must have abruptly altered his opinionabout future life and prospects in London.

M E D I N A A N D H I S P O R T R A I T S T Y L E

James Graham, first Duke of Montrose (‒)(Fig. ) probably sat for his portrait in , whilststill a Marquis, as payment is mentioned in the familyaccount books for that year on September.Hecame from a large landowning and political family, theduties of which he inherited at the age of three, whenhis father died suddenly in and he became thefourth Marquis. During his minority, additional landswere acquired, so that by the time of his marriage in



Fig. : Detail of Fig. .



Fig. : John Jossie, oil on canvas, � cm (Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh)

heroic visage suitably reflects the wealth anddynastic rights that were his by birth and pre-emptsthose he later acquired in high office of state. But,above all, it is a portrait instinct with life, an effectenhanced by the alert expression of the head and thelively glance out of and beyond the picture space, thesitter’s strong sense of character almost lending anair of noble expectancy to the composition.This bold approach can also be seen in other

portraits finished around the same time, none moreso than in the important series Medina undertook forthe Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh.Here,portrait after portrait exudes a liveliness of expressionand perception of character that goes well beyond theaccepted conventions of the time. (Figs. , ) English portraiture in the Baroque age was

dominated by Sir Godfrey Kneller, a painter whodepicted, remarkably, six ruling sovereigns from

Charles II to George I. His was a style that eventuallybrought a uniformity of approach and standardisedmanner of depiction that was to be followed forseveral decades. He formulated the ‘polite and urbanemask’ of the Augustan age: a summary method ofportraiture where the character and individuality ofthe sitter is almost, if not entirely, eradicated indeference to a formula of idealised representation thatis at best elegant and pleasing, yet can often be insipidand plain. This general style, as used by his studio andadopted by followers, became ubiquitous. That said,Kneller frequently rose above the parochial andproduced some of the most outstanding portraits ofthe age, undoubtedly deserving the significantrecognition he received during his own lifetime, aswell as in the decades after his death. With royaltyhappy to sit for him, it followed quite naturally that thesquirearchy and gentry enthusiastically wanted their

Fig. : Thomas Veatch, oil on canvas, � cm (Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh)

most notable being the Countess of Rothes herself,whose body type is that of the Electress of Hanovercopied from a mezzotint print.

These ‘manufactured’ portraits have significantlydamaged Medina’s reputation and caused some todoubt his abilities and worthiness as a portraitpainter. Awkward, stiff and lacking in the panache ofhis London pictures, they clearly need to beregarded in context. The portraits that were comingforth from the Drury Lane studio prior to theScottish visit are examples of a painter increasinglyahead of his game. The colourful baroque portrait ofArchibald, first Duke of Argyll, demonstrates amplyhis abilities: controlled smooth brushwork andastute representation in the grand manner did muchto establish him as an able alternative to Kneller. Hisstaid canvasses for the visit in only emphasisethe fact that Medina, carrying out a task that perhaps

faces executed by the same artist, even though theirsmight be a more manufactured version in comparisonto that of the monarch. In part, this standardisedapproach could be explained by the fact that Knellerwas almost a victim of his own success; a thoroughbusinessman, he responded to the ever increasingnumber of commissions by establishing one of thelargest studio practices, where pupils and assistantsworked away to meet the demand. Under thesecircumstances, a client could hope for, at best, thehead actually being by Kneller and, at worst, the entireportrait by a studio hand. As a result, his longstanding reputation has suffered as the tides of fashionand taste have ebbed and flowed over the years.So it was to be, to a much lesser extent, with

Medina. Scottish society was eager for commissionsand consequently he employed some assistants tohelp in the task and keep up with the workload.William Aikman (‒) is the only oneconfidently known about, but it is possible thatAndrew Hay, a picture dealer, was another. GeorgeVertue mentions him as initially ‘painting undermedina’ and the Edinburgh surgeons noted that theirportraits were cleaned after by ‘Andro Hay’.

Earlier assistants whilst in London at Drury Lane areunknown, but he certainly had them, as is clear fromthe portraits he brought north of the border in . His arrival in Scotland, unquestionably a turning

point in his career and an exciting moment amongsthis potential aristocratic patrons, paradoxicallyrepresents his artistic nadir. Determined as he was tokeep each visit restricted to only a short time, he tookthe methodical approach of Kneller and had canvasessomewhat mechanically produced in the studio.Medina was ‘to doe the drapery work . . . so that therwill be little to doe except to add a head and neck . . .a good many may be so blocked as that he will finishthem before he goes’. It is not surprising that someof these portraits simply fail to impress and fall shortof quality. Heads sit somewhat uncomfortably on notaltogether suitable poses, which often were derivativeor taken directly from existing pictures, perhaps the



Fig. : William Hogarth: John Palmer, barrister, ,

� . cm (Yale Center for British Art, Paul MellonCollection, USA)

are of mediocre quality’, it can be argued, by way ofexample, that the surgeons’ portraits, though varied inapproach, given that they were completed over a tenyear period, all display – even those later lesssatisfactorily finished – an expressiveness of characterand almost nervous energy of drawing that lifts theportrait from the conventional to the unusual. (Fig. )The faces are diverse, the Augustan mask has slipped,and we as viewers are allowed to appreciate the personas an individual, rather than a mere stereotype. Medina’s study of George Mackenzie

(‒), a member of the College of Physicians,goes one step further. (Fig. ) This appears to havebeen a private commission, perhaps prompted byMackenzie seeing the surgeons’ pictures, and onstylistic grounds it appears to have been completedaround , a year after being elected a Fellow; hewas also a biographer, renowned for his three-

he did not ultimately have the heart for, was merelyfulfilling a promised obligation in a perfunctorymanner, and are in no way indicative of his true skillsas a portrait painter. By the time Medina settled in Edinburgh for good

after , there is a distinct return to form and overtime a singular development in his portrait style; theimposing, grandiose, Baroque is replaced by asincerity and earnestness of approach. His colourpalette alters and the use of paint becomes bolder,looser and freer in application to complement this. He endeavours to depict his sitters as real individualsrather than anything loftier. And with this approachhis portraiture expresses personality in a way that wasunheard of for the time and can be suggested as anotable precedent to the work of William Hogarth(‒) by some thirty years (Fig. ). So, whileJohn Fleming observed that ‘Most of his later works



Fig. : George Mackenzie, oil on canvas, � cm(Private Collection, England)

Fig. : James Hamilton, oil on canvas, � cm (Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh)

volume Lives and Characters of the most EminentWriters of the Scots Nation (‒). The fluidity ofpaint around his face and the thick linear definitionof the wig are profound and confident, thephysiognomy distinct and personal. Also, in thisinstance, Medina has chosen to break with theconventions of the standard oval portraits by havingMackenzie’s right hand hold a book which anglesout beyond the two dimensional picture plane. Notonly does this animate the portrait further, but it isalso an indication of the pursuit of the sitter,something not evident in any of the surgeons’portraits where they are presented largely asbecloaked gentlemen.

J A M E S G R A H A M , F I R S T D U K E O F M O N T R O S E

On August , Queen Anne died and theprocedures as decreed in the earlier Act of Regencyof went ahead to ensure a smooth transition ofmonarch, without the potential hiatus from Jacobiterebels favouring the return of the exiled CatholicStuarts. The Privy Council met at Kensington Palacewhere the Regency nominations of the new kingwhere disclosed and the Regency councilestablished. George Elector of Hanover, nd in lineto the throne, but the nearest Protestant according tothe Act of Settlement, was then proclaimed King andon August the overwhelmingly Tory dominatedparliament unanimously proclaimed its loyalty to thenew monarch. Montrose was appointed one of theLords of the Regency, tasked with the responsibilityof ensuring that the new King’s arrival would bepeaceful and untroubled. All went well, and six daysafter George had landed in England in September,Montrose was rewarded with the position of Keeperof the Signet and made one of the principalSecretaries of State.When he became one of the Lords of the

Regency in , Montrose took up residence in



Fig. : Sir Godfrey Kneller: James Graham, 1st Duke ofMontrose, oil on canvas, � cm (Whereabouts

unknown) (photograph: authors collection)

Fig. : Robert Cooper after Medina: James Graham, 1st Duke of Montrose, engraving, � .cm, c.

(Private Collection, England)

Glasgow. The portraits by Medina no doubt wereconsidered out of date and in need of replacing,having been undertaken before his rise to ducalstatus, and therefore were given to his paternal auntLady Grizell Cochrane. It is through this line of thefamily that the portrait descended until more recentyears.When an image of the Duke was laterrequired in the nineteenth century it was to beMedina’s, rather than that by Kneller, which was tocatch the eye of the engraver Robert Cooper. (Fig. )Though a wealthy man, the Duke was plagued by

financial worry due to speculative investments thatultimately proved flawed, such as the notoriousSouth Sea Bubble and York Buildings Company.Together with the much publicised feud with theScottish outlaw Rob Roy Macgregor, his life wasalways somewhat overshadowed by these colourfulevents. Upon the accession of George II in hewas named Lord Lieutenant of Dunbartonshire,Sheriff-Principal of Stirling, and Keeper of the GreatSeal of Scotland. However, in April 1733 he openlyopposed Sir Robert Walpole’s Excise Bill and wasswiftly dismissed from office. A year later he wasdefeated in the peers’ election and never sat inparliament again.

C O N C L U S I O N

Recently rediscovered, and published for the firsttime, Medina’s portraits of the Duke of Montroseand George Mackenzie emphasise the hithertooverlooked fluency and significance of his portraitstyle. Medina’s reputation, like that of Kneller, hassuffered over the years due to changes in taste andfashion. Unquestionably, though, he was a painterstriving to depict people in a manner beyond theconfines of the accepted norm of the time. In aperiod that dwelt upon the superficial as anappropriate physical façade, Medina strove to depictcharacter and to create a form of reality within hisportraiture that is striking and at times remarkable in

Glasgow, being appointed to his father’s office ofBailie and Justiciar of the Barony and Regality ofGlasgow, thus ensuring he exerted much politicalinfluence. In October he also becameChancellor of the University. But within a year thenew Hanoverian monarchy faced a threat from aJacobite insurrection in the north, and Montrose,one of the officials in charge of the civiladministration of Scotland, had to prove his worth to his new master. As a result he called for leniencytowards the rebels and, as an act of diplomacy,resigned as Secretary of State in August , anoffice he only had due to the dismissed Earl of Mar, a known Jacobite sympathiser. Thus positioned, hefelt he could mediate, for whilst he was a Protestantand supporter of the Hanoverian succession he wasfirst and foremost a Scots nobleman. In a letter to hiscolleague Mungo Graeme, he remarked that thegovernment’s reaction to the rebellion might besevere and punishment extend ‘much further thaneither you or I would wish, the consequence ofwhich . . . can never be pleasing to us as Scots menand will not do the K[ing] service.’

About this time Montrose was painted byKneller; unfortunately a seemingly weak andformulaic study when compared with Medina’svirtuoso portrait. (Fig. ) No doubt succumbing toKneller’s fashionable status and the fact that he haddepicted the new monarch, Montrose chose also tohave him paint his wife in the winter of : ‘Mywife is to sit for her picture which must answer minedone by Sr Godfrey, for that done for myself atGlasgow by Medina is to be given to Lady GrizellCochrane as mine done by him was, let me knowtherefore the exact demensions of My picture by SrGodfrey and wither it looks right in corner of theroom . . .’

The Duke generally spent a large part of the yearin England; his principal Scottish residence wasBuchanan Castle, near Drymen in Stirlingshire. Atthe time of Kneller’s picture, the Duke had alsoconstructed a new palatial home in Drygate in



As observed by Holloway, op. cit. p. NAS, Montrose papers, GD //. George Lockhart, The Lockhart papers: containing

memoirs and commentaries upon the affairs ofScotland from to , I (London, ), p. .

For a study of the surgeons series of portraits, seeDavid Mannings, ‘Sir John de Medina’s Portraits ofthe Surgeons of Edinburgh’, Medical History, ()(April ), pp –.

David Piper, The English Face (London, ), p..

Mannings, loc.cit., p.. NAS, Leven and Melville papers, GD //.

Mezzotint engraving by Pieter Schneck of SophiaCarolina, Electress of Hanover.

John Fleming, ‘Sir John de Medina and his“Postures”’, The Connoisseur, August , p. .

NAS, Montrose papers, GD///, December.

NAS, Montrose papers, GD///, letter toMungo Grame, December .

The portrait ultimately descended to a distantbranch of the family resident abroad. It firstappeared on the art market at Christies, Edinburgh,th October, , lot .

its audacity. Distinctive and in some instancesexceptional, these paintings reveal an individuality ofapproach that did not emerge more fully in Britishportraiture until some three decades later withWilliam Hogarth and, more specifically in Scotland,Allen Ramsay (‒).

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S

His Grace the Duke of Argyll; Marianne Smith, RoyalCollege of Surgeons, Edinburgh; staff at HeinzArchive, National Portrait Gallery & National Archivesof Scotland; Ruth Boreham; James McAlister

For an overview of the painter’s life, see Rosalind.K. Marshall, ‘John de Medina, –’ ScottishMasters (Edinburgh, National Galleries ofScotland, ) and James Holloway, Patrons andPainters: Art in Scotland – (Edinburgh,Scottish National Portrait Gallery, ).

National Archives of Scotland (NAS), Leven andMelville papers, GD //.



Documents

Miles Barton, ‘Sir John de Medina’s portrait of the 1st