SIR

See also:

• GEORGE
• GEORGE, 8TH MARQUESS OF TWEEDDALE (1787-1876)
• GEORGE, HENRY (1839—1897)
• GEORGE, LAKE
• GEORGE, SAINT (d. 303)

GEORGE

See also:

• HARVEY
• HARVEY, GABRIEL (c. 1545-1630)
• SIR GEORGE HARVEY (1806-1876)
• HARVEY, WILLIAM (1578—1657)

HARVEY (1806-1876)  , Scottish painter, the son of a watchmaker, was born at St Ninians, near Stirling, in February 18o6 . Soon after his birth his parents removed to Stirling, where George was apprenticed to a bookseller . His love for art having, however, become very decided, in hiseighteenth year he entered the Trustees' Academy at Edinburgh . Here he so distinguished himself that in 1826 he was invited by the Scottish artists, who had resolved to found a Scottish academy, to join it as an associate . Harvey's first picture, " A Village School," was exhibited in 1826 at the Edinburgh Institution; and from the time of the opening of the Academy in the following year he continued annually to exhibit . His best-known pictures are those depicting historical episodes in religious history from a puritan or evangelical point of view, such as " Covenanters Preaching,' " Covenanters' Communion," " John Bunyan and his Blind Daughter," " Sabbath Evening," and the " Quitting of the Manse." He was, however, equally popular in Scotland for subjects not directly religious; and " The Bowlers," " A Highland Funeral," " The Curlers," "A Schule Skailin'," and " Children Blowing Bubbles in the Church-yard of Greyfriars', Edinburgh," manifest the same close observation of character, artistic conception and conscientious elaboration of details . In "The Night Mail" and " Dawn Revealing the New World to Columbus " the aspects of nature are, made use of in different ways, but with equal happiness, to lend impressiveness and solemnity to human concerns . He also painted landscapes and portraits . In 1829 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Scottish Academy; in 1864 he succeeded Sir J . W . Gordon as president; and he was knighted in 1867 . He died at Edinburgh on the 22nd of January 1876 .

Sir George Harvey was the author of a

paper on the " Colour of the Atmosphere," read before the Edinburgh Royal Society, and afterwards published with illustrations in Good Words; and in 187o he published a small volume entitled Notes of the Early History of the Royal Scottish Academy . Selections from the Works of Sir George Harvey, P.R.S.A., described by the Rev . A . L . Simpson, F.S.A . Scot., and photographed by Thomas Annan, appeared at Edinburgh in 1869 .