JAMES SCOULER
1740 – 1812
Dated 1764
Signed with monogram
Height (including clasp): 1¾ inches / 4.4 cm
Stock number: RH1215/0121
Price: £650
An early portrait miniature by James Scouler, signed with his monogram and dated 1764. Scouler was born in Edinburgh, the son of an organ builder. He followed his father into this profession, but his talent for drawing must have been prodigious, as, at the age of about 15, he won a prize for drawing from the ‘ Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce’. This must have determined his chosen career, as in London he attended the drawing classes at the St. Martin’s Lane ‘Academy’ run by William Hogarth. He also studied the classical sculpture at the Duke of Richmond’s Gallery which opened to students in 1758. From 1761, he exhibited at the Society of Artists, which had opened in London the year before. In 1769, the Royal Academy opened, but Scouler only chose to exhibit there from 1780″.
