John Syme RSA 1795-1861

John Syme R.S.A. was born at Edinburgh in 1793.

He studied at the Trustees Academy, and was a good deal employed by Raeburn as an assistant.

After the death of the latter, he enjoyed very good practice as a portrait painter, but bad health in his later years removed him almost entirely from the practice of his profession.

He was one of the original members of the Royal Scottish Academy, indeed always claimed where been its founder. He died in 1861.

RSA Obituary, transcribed from the 1861 RSA Annual Report