Portrait of Flora MacDonald
| Portrait of Flora MacDonald | |
|---|---|
| Artist | Richard Wilson |
| Year | 1747 |
| Type | Oil on canvas, portrait painting |
| Dimensions | 117 cm × 93.3 cm (46 in × 36.7 in) |
| Location | National Portrait Gallery, London |
Portrait of Flora MacDonald is a 1747 portrait painting by the British artist Richard Wilson. It depicts the Scottish Jacobite Flora MacDonald. During the latter stages of the unsuccessful Jacobite Rising of 1745, she assisted Charles Edward Stuart to escape.[1] Her role made her a popular celebrity in Britain. She later emigrated to North Carolina where she supported the Loyalist cause in the American War of Independence. It was painted shortly after she was released from the Tower of London and shows her wearing tartan bow with a backdrop they appears to show the royal escape.[2]
As the Welsh Wilson was from a strongly Whig family it was unlikely that his painting reflected any personal sympathy with Jacobitism, rather than portaging a popular subject. Early in his career the artist produced a number of portraits. Wilson then travelled to Italy, and specialised entirely on landscapes on his return to Britain for which he is best known. Today the painting is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London, which acquired it in 1985.[3]
Another portrait of her by Wilson, dated the same year, is now in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. A smaller, oval-shaped portrait without the backdrop, it shows her more clearly clad in tartan. [4] [5]
References
Bibliography
- Fraser, Flora. Pretty Young Rebel: The Life of Flora Macdonald. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023.
- Lord, Peter. The Tradition: A New History of Welsh Art 1400–1990. Parthian Books, 2023.
- Solkin, David H. Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction. Tate Gallery, 1982