Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Sir Francis Grant

GRANT, Sir Francis (1803-1878), an English portrait painter, and president of the Royal Academy in London, was the fourth son of Francis Grant of Kilgraston, Perth shire, and was born at Edinburgh in 1803, He was educated for the bar, and, according to the testimony of Sir Walter Scott in his diary, it was originally his intention after spending his small patrimony in field sports to make his fortune by the law. By the time, however, that the first part of his purpose had been accomplished, he had resolved to adopt painting in preference to law as his pro fession, and at the age of twenty-four he began at Edinburgh systematically to study the practice of art. On completing a course of instruction he removed to London, and as early as 1843 exhibited at the Royal Academy. At the beginning of his career he utilized his sporting experiences by painting groups of huntsmen, horses, and hounds, such as the Meet of H.M. Staghounds and the Melton Hunt; and doubtless if he had chosen to devote himself to the careful treatment of this class of subjects his success might have been more thorough and permanent, if less brilliant and lucrative, than it was. If, however, the reputation he acquired as a fashion able portrait-painter was aided by his social position and gentlemanly manners, it rested also on certain special artistic qualifications. The first and chief of these was his power of thoroughly reproducing the outward tone and manner of fashionable life, or, as Sir Walter Scott called it, his " sense of beauty derived from the best source, that is, the observa tion of raally good society." If also his execution was superficial and thin, it was bright, clear, facile, and uncon strained. In drapery he had the taste of a connoisseur, and rendered the minutest details of costume with felicitous accuracy. In female portraiture he achieved considerable success, although rather in depicting the highborn graces and external characteristics than the true and individual personality. Among his portraits of this class may be mentioned Lady Glenlyon, the marchioness of Waterford, Lady Rodney, and Mrs Beauclerk. In his protraits of generals and sportsmen he proved himself more equal to his subjects than in those of statesmen and men of letters. He painted many of the principal celebrities of the time especially those occupying high social position including Scott, Macaulay, Lockhart, Disraeli, Hardinge, Gough, Derby, Palmerston, and Russell, his brother Sir J. Hope Grant, and his friend Sir Edwin Landseer. From the first his career was rapidly prosperous, and his recognition by the Academy fully kept pace with his reputation as an artist. In 1842 ha was elected an associate, and in 1851 an Academician; and in 1866 he was chosen to succeed Sir C. Eastlake in the post of president, for which his chief recommendations were his social distinction, tact, urbanity, and-friendly and liberal consideration of his brother artists ; and its difficult and often invidious duties he performed so as both to increase the harmony and influence of the institution and to enhance its efficiency. Shortly after his election as president he received the honour of knight hood, and in 1870 the degree of D.C.L. was conferred upon him by the university of Oxford. He died October 5, 1878.