Sir Herbert James Gunn RA, 1893-1964

Born in Glasgow, the son of a tailor, Gunn spent a brief period at Glasgow School of Art before enrolling at Edinburgh College of Art in 1910. He spent some time in Paris before returning to settle in Scotland, where he exhibited his first two portraits at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1913. Gunn was a friend and contemporary of the Edinburgh Group painted William Oliphant Hutchison, and his and Hutchison's portraits were recognised as being far superior to those of other portrait painters at this time. Hutchison's diploma picture in the Royal Scottish Academy was a portrait of Gunn.
Although Gunn's reputation was to be made as a portrait painter, his early success came with fluently painted landscapes executed in France and Spain before the First World War. After his demobilisation Gunn settled in England, although he maintained strong links with his native Glasgow. His career as a society portrait painter took off, and in 1953 he was commissioned to paint the Queen at the beginning of her reign.