CIRCLE OF WILLIAM AIKMAN (1683 – 1721)
JACOBITE INTEREST FAMILY GROUP PORTRAIT, 18TH CENTURY
Auction: Day 1: Wednesday 20 August - Lots 1 - 296
Description
oil on canvas, featuring nine busts within feigned oval cartouches, likely to be Sir David Nairne and his wife Maire Elizabeth Compigny, surrounded by their dependents, framed, with labels verso
Dimensions
59cm x 59.6cm
Provenance
Bequeathed to the Georgian Society
Interiors, Christie's London 24th January 2012, lot 253
The McEwan Gallery, Royal Deeside
Private Scottish Collection
Footnote
Although labelled and for much time previously considered to be an amalgamated Jacobite group of sitters, traditionally identified as Flora Macdonald, Marquis of Tullibardie, Prince Charles Edward, Earl of Nairn, Countess of Nairn, Earl of Nithsdale, Earl of Derwentwater, Countess of Mar, Lucy Dean, this now seems spurious.
At the time when this picture was painted the sitters' age ranges are disconnected, for example a group featuring a very young Prince Charles would not show the yet unknown Flora MacDonald. If it were painted post-1745 when her fame was well known, it certainly would not show a young Prince Charles when so many iconic, and then contemporary, images were now known.
It is now considered that the main two central sitters are Sir David Nairne and his wife Lady Maire Elizabeth Compigny, and the outer portraits are their family. This structure makes far more sense, and the striking resemblance to both Sir David and Lady Marie from their known portraits, although more naive in execution here, cannot be doubted.
Sir David Nairne was the son of Sir Thomas Nairne, of Sandfurd and Margaret Barclay. Nairne followed James II into exile and worked closely with him and the Stuart exiled court at Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He became a central figure, variously serving as Under Secretary of State and other roles in Jacobite politics, from 1689 till 1713. This close relationship saw Nairne working directly with and for King James and acting directly in his name at the courts of Versailles, Lunéville and Rome.
This close relationship passed from King James II to his son James III and Sir David worked from 1706 to 1713 as Clerk of the King's Council and was Secretary of the Closet for the King's private letters and dispatches between 1713 and 1733.
For these roles and continued unwavering support, he was made a Baronet in the Jacobite peerage of 1719. Today his place is well-recorded by the survival of his papers when working with James II and III, showing the relationship and respect they had for him, as well as the prominent role he played in the cause.
For a full account of his life and work and illustration of the portraits of Sir David and Lady Nairne see ‘Sir David Nairne, The Life of a Scottish Jacobite at the Court of the Exiled Stuarts’ by Edward Corp.