David Donald, the subject of this painting, was a director of Flemings who in the late 1960s had the idea of forming a collection of Scottish art to enhance the offices of the bank in London. He thus became the Fleming Collection’s first curator, acquiring works of art and organising their display for nearly two decades. By the early summer of 1980 the Collection contained three paintings by David Donaldson and the idea was first mooted that he might be asked to paint a portrait of Donald himself; Donaldson was then Scotland’s premier portraitist and had been appointed Her Majesty’s Painter and Limner in Scotland in 1977 (succeeding the previous holder of that office, Stanley Cursiter). In 1984, just a year before his sudden death, Donald sat for this portrait which was acquired by the Collection in 1990. Donald is shown in the traditional British manner for gentlemen’s portraits - a tradition that goes back to the Italian Renaissance: the pose and warm-coloured setting suggest status, wisdom and geniality.

David Abercrombie Donaldson RSA RP, 1916-1996

Born in Chryston, Lanarkshire, Donaldson was brought up by his grandparents in a working-class environment in Coatbridge. From 1932 to 1938 he studied at Glasgow School of Art, where his teachers included Hugh Adam Crawford and Ian Fleming. A travelling scholarship took him to Florence and Paris in 1937. After leaving the school the following year he became a part-time teacher there, giving evening classes. In 1944 he was appointed a full-time lecturer becoming in 1967 an influential Head of Department of Drawing and Painting, a post he held until his retirement in 1981. He was appointed Her Majesty's Painter and Limner in Scotland in 1977. Donaldson is known for his witty portraits and figure paintings. His work also includes still life and landscape, particularly of Scotland and of France, where he had a house.