Thomas Duncan

Who was Thomas Duncan?

Thomas Duncan, RA was a Scottish portrait and historical painter born in Kinclaven, Perthshire.

Educated at the Perth Academy, he began studying law, but abandoned it for art. Beginning under the instruction of Sir William Allan, he attained early distinction as a delineator of the human figure; and his first pictures established his fame so completely, that at a very early age he was appointed professor of coloring and afterwards of drawing, in the Trustees Academy of Edinburgh.

In 1840 he painted one of his finest pictures, Charles Edward Stuart and the Highlanders entering Edinburgh after the Battle of Prestonpans, which secured his election as an associate of the Royal Academy in 1843. In the same year he produced his picture of Charles Edward asleep after Culloden, protected by Flora MacDonald, which, like many other of his works, has been often engraved. In 1844 appeared his Cupid, and his Martyrdom of John Brown of Priesthill. His last work was a self-portrait, now in the National Gallery in Edinburgh. He particularly excelled in his portraits of ladies and children, yet his own portrait was painted by Robert Scott Lauder.

He died in Edinburgh.