Robert Edmonstone RSA (1794–1834), was a Scottish artist.

Life

Edmonstone, was born at Kelso in 1794, the son of James and Catherine Edmonstone.Details from parents grave He was initially apprenticed to a watchmaker. He showed a taste for painting at an early age, and when his family came to Edinburgh, his drawings attracted much attention: he was patronised by Sir Abraham Hume, and settled in London about 1819. He first exhibited some portraits at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

in 1818. After attending

George Henry Harlow George Henry Harlow (10 June 1787 – 4 February 1819) was an English people, English painter known mostly for his portraits. Life Harlow was born in St. James's Street, London, the posthumous son of a China merchant, who after some yea ...

's studio he was admitted to the Royal Academy school, and subsequently travelled in Italy. Between 1824 and 1829 he was mainly painting portraits in London. In 1830 Edmonstone exhibited ''Italian Boys playing at Cards''. He paid a second visit to Italy in 1831–2, and painted ''Venetian Carriers'' and the ''Ceremony of Kissing the Chains of St. Peter'', which was exhibited at the British Institution in 1833. Fifty-eight pictures by Edmonstone were in all exhibited at the Royal Academy,

British Institution The British Institution (in full, the British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom; founded 1805, disbanded 1867) was a private 19th-century society in London formed to exhibit the works of living and dead artists; it ...

, and Suffolk Street Gallery exhibitions before 1834. A severe attack of fever at Rome in 1832, combined with overwork, permanently injured his health. He returned to London, and found himself so enfeebled that he went to Kelso, where he died on 21 August 1834. He is buried in Kelso but memorialised on the grave of his family in St Cuthbert's churchyard in central Edinburgh. The grave lies against the south-west boundary wall.

Works

An engraving by James Mitchell (see Robert Mitchell) of his painting was published in The Literary Souvenir annual for 1831, together with a poetical illustration by

Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. Landon's writings are emblematic of the transition from Romanticism to Victorian literature. Her first major b ...

. Edmonstone's last pictures were ''The White Mouse'', exhibited in 1834 at Suffolk Street, and the ''Children of Sir E. Cust'', exhibited at the Royal Academy. He was a successful painter of children, and his portraits were popular; but he aspired to fame as a painter of imaginative subjects and as a student of

Correggio Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter who was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Renaissance, who was responsible for som ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edmonstone, Robert 1794 births 1834 deaths 19th-century Scottish painters Scottish male painters People from Kelso, Scottish Borders 19th-century Scottish male artists