Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tannock, James
TANNOCK, JAMES (1784–1863), portrait-painter, the son of a shoemaker, was born at Kilmarnock in 1784. He was apprenticed to his father's trade, but, eager from his boyhood to become an artist, he managed to exchange his uncongenial calling for that of a house-painter, and devoted his leisure to essays in portraiture. Persevering under difficulties, he was fortunate enough to get some instruction at last from Alexander Nasmyth [q. v.], after which he practised with considerable success at Glasgow and Greenock alternately, as a painter of portraits and of miniatures. In 1810 he came to London and established himself in Newman Street, contributing some forty-four portraits to the Royal Academy exhibitions between 1813 and 1841. He died in London on 6 May 1863. His portraits of George Chalmers, of Professor G. Bell, and of Henry Bell are in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. His younger brother, William Tannock, also practised as a portrait-painter, and exhibited several works between 1820 and 1830.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Irving's Eminent Scotsmen.]