George Jamesone, 1587-1644

Born in Aberdeen, the son of a stone mason, Jamesone has been called “the Scottish Van Dyck”. He was apprenticed to his uncle, John Anderson, a popular decorative painter in Edinburgh and became highly regarded as a portrait painter among the merchants and burghers of Aberdeen, but he attained national fame when he was commissioned to paint a decorative arch for the royal visit of Charles I to Scotland in 1633, and then to paint the King himself. From that point on, he was highly sought-after among the Scottish aristocracy, maintaining busy studios in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, and is considered to be Scotland’s first eminent portrait painter.