Large Oil Painting Edinburgh Building Royal Institution After Alexander Nasmyth

1 Large Oil Painting Historic Cityscape Edinburgh Building of the Royal Institution After Alexander Nasmyth. Impress your clients & guests make an art statement with this citylife masterpiece to display on your office wall space or home interior. Monogram signed at the bottom by the artist E.D.Y. Oil on board set in a traditional decorative gilt frame. Circa late 20th century 1990's. A nice proportion sized frame being 84 cm wide and 64 cm high. Title “Princess Street with the Commencement of the Building of the Royal Institution Edinburgh After Alexander Nasmyth” Your focus is first drawn to Princess Street, you see see the amazing architecture design of the buildings along this known Scottish street, the scene has been set in 1825. Depicting an amazing deep perspective cityscape busy scene with horses and carriages moving along the long road with passengers and people ladies & gentleman pedestrians walking along dressed in period clothes & hats of the Regency era. With street lamps along the pavement. On the bottom right flank you can view the construction of the Royal Institution building. It offers a panoramic view of Edinburgh with the New Town on the left and the Old Town on the right. Also visible are St Giles' Cathedral, Arthur's Seat and the Nelson Monument on Calton Hill. Biography of Alexander Nasmyth (9 September 1758 – 10 April 1840) was a Scottish portrait and landscape painter, he was pupil of Allan Ramsay. He also undertook several architectural commissions. Nasmyth was born in Edinburgh on 9 September 1758. He studied at the Royal High School and the Trustees' Academy and was apprenticed to a coachbuilder. Aged sixteen, he was taken to London by portrait painter Allan Ramsay where he worked on subordinate parts of Ramsay's works. Nasmyth returned to Edinburgh in 1778, where he worked as a portrait painter. Offered a loan by Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, Nasmyth left in 1782 for Italy, where he remained two years furthering his studies. In Italy he devoted most of his attention to landscape painting, and is recorded as having copied a work by Claude Lorrain. Nasmyth returned to Scotland where for the next few years he continued his career as a portraitist. He painted some works in the style of Ramsay, but most were conversation pieces with outdoor settings. His portrait of Robert Burns, who became a close friend,[4]is now in the Scottish National Gallery. Eventually, Nasmyth's strong Liberal opinions offended many of his aristocratic patrons in a politically charged Edinburgh, leading to a falling off in commissions for portraits,[1] and in 1792 he completely abandoned the genre, turning instead to landscape painting. He also began painting scenery for theatres, an activity he continued for the next thirty years, and in 1796 painted a panorama. His landscapes are all of actual places, and architecture is usually an important element. Some works were painted to illustrate the effects that new buildings would have on an area, such as Inverary from the Sea, painted for the Duke of Argyll to show the setting a proposed lighthouse. Nasmyth had a great interest in engineering, and proposed several ideas that were later widely used, although he never patented any of them. In October 1788, when Patrick Miller sailed the world's first successful steamship, designed by William Symington, on Dalswinton Loch, Nasmyth was one of the crew. He was employed by members of the Scottish nobility in the improvement and beautification of their estates. He designed the circular temple covering St Bernard's Well by the Water of Leith (1789), and bridges at Almondell, West Lothian, and Tongland, Kirkcudbrightshire. In 1815 he was one of those invited to submit proposals for the expansion of Edinburgh New Town. Nasmyth set up a drawing school and "instilled a whole generation with the importance of drawing as a tool of empirical investigation"; his pupils included David Wilkie, David Roberts, Clarkson Stanfieldand John Thomson of Duddingston; and it was probably from him that John James Ruskin (father of John Ruskin) learned to paint as a schoolboy in Edinburgh in the later 1790s. Another successful pupil was the painter, teacher, art dealer and connoisseur Andrew Wilson, who had his first art training under Nasmyth. Nasmyth was not only the tutor to the polymath Mary Somerville but he also introduced her to the leading intellectuals in Edinburgh. Nasmyth died at home, 47 York Place (roughly opposite the house of Sir Henry Raeburn), in Edinburgh. He was buried in St Cuthbert's Churchyard at the west end of Princes Street. The grave lies in the southern section towards the south-west. Provenance from a Southern Shire dealers collection & in collection of Cheshire Antiques Consultant Ltd. Hanging thread on the back ready for immediate wall display. We only select & sell paintings based upon subject, quality & significance. We provide our clients with friendly professional expert customer service. Viewings are welcome by appointment only for customer support please send a message thankyou. Browse our other exciting Fine Arts, antiques & collectibles available in our shop gallery. Dimensions in centimetres of the frame High (64 cm) Wide (84 cm) Depth (3.5 cm)