Sir George Harvey PPRSA 1806 -1876

Born near Stirling, George Harvey was apprenticed to a Stirling bookseller with whom he remained until 1824 and at this time he began to paint. He then studied art at the Trustees’ Academy in Edinburgh (under Sir William Allan), and he remained in Edinburgh for the rest of his life.

Harvey’s reputation was made with his large historical canvases, many of which dealt with the difficult history of the church in Scotland. For example his painting of 1847, Quitting the Manse, shows a minister and his family being forced to leave their home after the Disruption of the church in Scotland in 1843. Many of these works were copied and published as engravings and thereby became widely known. Other paintings record the everyday life of the times, perhaps his best-known painting being The Curlers (1835) which portrays an open-air curling match. Later in life Harvey painted atmospheric landscapes of the highlands and moors of Scotland with a “pensive charm and pastoral melancholy”.

Harvey was elected an Associate of the Academy (ARSA) in 1826 and an Academician (RSA) in 1829. He was the fourth President of the Royal Scottish Academy, serving from 1864 to 1876.