After Sir Anthony van Dyck

This painting is a copy after the Portrait of James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose (1612–1650) currently given to the studio of Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.¹ Van Dyck himself may have painted the prototype for this composition, which is now presumably lost. The Edinburgh portrait was previously attributed to William Dobson (1611–1646), probably on account of the similarities with another likeness of the same sitter by Dobson sold in these Rooms in 2013.²

Montrose was a Scottish nobleman, poet, soldier and later viceroy and captain general of Scotland. He initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I (1600–1649) as the English Civil War developed. In 1644, he raised the Highland clans for the King and won a series of victories, yet was defeated at Philiphaugh, near Selkirk. He subsequently fled to the Continent but returned after the King's execution. Montrose was captured at the Battle of Carbisdale, resulting in him being tried by the Scottish Parliament and sentenced to death by hanging, followed by beheading and quartering in the Grassmarket of Edinburgh. After the Restoration, Charles II (1630–1685) paid £802 for a lavish funeral in 1661, prompting Montrose's reputation to change from traitor or martyr to that of a romantic hero and the later subject of works by Walter Scott (1771–1832) and John Buchan (1875–1940).

¹ Accession number: PG 2418, oil on canvas, 75.6 x 58.4 cm., James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, 1612 - 1650. Royalist | Page 2 | National Galleries of Scotland.

² The Property of his Grace the Duke of Montrose, London, Sotheby's, 3 July 2013, lot 5; oil on canvas, 81.2 x 87 cm.; (#5) William Dobson (sothebys.com).