the Forth Naturalist Historian - Forth Naturalist and Historian ...

Forth Naturalist and Historian, volume 22 97
SIR GEORGE HARVEY PRSA (1806-1876)
People of the Forth (12)
Maria Devaney
Figure 1 Self Portrait in Pencil, 1849.
‘One of the best known and most distinguished among the Scottish Artists’.
Robert Brydall, History of Art in Scotland.
Sir George Harvey (figure 1), a landscape and genre painter, played an
important role in the establishment of a ‘Scottish School’ of artists in the mid-
19th century. His career coincided with the period following the establishment
of the Trustees Academy in Edinburgh, when Scottish born artists could for the
first time, train, exhibit, and base themselves in Scotland, without having to
move south to further their careers.
Harvey was born in St Ninians in 1806, where his father, also George
Harvey, worked as a clockmaker. The Harveys moved into the town of Stirling
later the same year, when Harvey senior was admitted into the Hammermen’s
Trade. Young George Harvey was one of five children, and he attended the
High School in Stirling, before being apprenticed to a bookseller in the town.