A Family of Portrait Painters
William Scott 1797-1862
and his Children
William Wallace Scott 1820-1905
Emily Anne Scott (later Mrs Seymour) 1827-1883
E. Augustine Scott 1832-1904
E.Montagu Scott 1834-1909
Juliana Scott (later Szczepanowska then Ferranti) 1825-1906
and his Grandchildren
Vanda Szcsepanowska 1850-1941
Georgiana Scott 1852-1947
Juliet Ferranti 1858-1936
and furthur down the line
Juliana Forster
Camilla Ferranti
Frances Ross www.francesross.co.uk
Kit Hunter gordon
and even furthur on down
Domenica de Ferranti www.domenicadeferranti.com
Ione Hunter Gordon www.ionehuntergordon.com
and his Children
William Wallace Scott 1820-1905
Emily Anne Scott (later Mrs Seymour) 1827-1883
E. Augustine Scott 1832-1904
E.Montagu Scott 1834-1909
Juliana Scott (later Szczepanowska then Ferranti) 1825-1906
and his Grandchildren
Vanda Szcsepanowska 1850-1941
Georgiana Scott 1852-1947
Juliet Ferranti 1858-1936
and furthur down the line
Juliana Forster
Camilla Ferranti
Frances Ross www.francesross.co.uk
Kit Hunter gordon
and even furthur on down
Domenica de Ferranti www.domenicadeferranti.com
Ione Hunter Gordon www.ionehuntergordon.com
Before the days of photography, how could you capture the likeness of someone?
How could you get a picture of your beloved, to carry round next to your heart?
How to obtain a picture of yourself to make sure you were remembered for ever ?
- You hired a portrait painter.
Not the modern day type, who might paint you with one eye in the middle of your forehead, but someone you trusted to get a true likeness and to portray your best character and - though never admitted - to make you look as good as possible.
In other words someone who could do a bit of air-brushing.
Someone who nowadays would be an expert at Photoshop on the computer.
- A good portrait painter required several skills :-
He or she must be an excellent painter. Capturing a good likeness is difficult. However, the ability to airbrush the subject without losing that likeness is very hard.
As well as excellent painting skills the artist would also need to have the social skills necessary to help the subject to relax and to discover how he or she wanted to look.
He would also have to be a good businessman
Modern portraiture is often all about the artist.
But when the Scott family was painting, it was all about the sitter and what he or she wanted and how he or she wanted to be seen. -
Did she want to look as pretty as possible?
Did he want to look powerful?
Did a mother want her children to look endearing?
If a portrait painter was not able to do this, he or she did not get work.
In the early days of daguerreotype photography , Queen Victoria asked Alfred Chalon, a fashionable French miniature painter, whether he was not afraid that photography would ruin his profession. His answer to the Queen was
"Ah Non Madam - photography cannot flatter"
It is only since the advent of the camera and its easy ability to capture a likeness, that portrait painters have felt the need to try to do something different and so often now distort the human image.
The Scott family witnessed the birth of photography and the resultant end of their trade. Interestingly they appeared to embrace the new technology.
William opened a combined studio with his son-in-law, Cesar Ferranti, who was one of the new photographers.
William Wallace and Emily helped Cesar by hand-colouring his photographs.
The two younger sons each briefly had commercial photographic studios, one in Belfast and the other in Melbourne, Australia.
William Wallace later taught colour photography at The Coopers Union, New York.
Perhaps it was a case of embrace the new technology or be out of a job and starve?