the seat of Hobart Earl of Buckinghamshire, are a great many full-length pictures by Mr. Aikman; of noblemen, gentlemen, and ladies, relations and friends of the earl. These, with the royal family above named, were his last works; and but a few of the number he painted in London. He died on 7 June 1731. Art In his style of painting, Mr. Aikman seems to have aimed at imitating nature in her pleasing simplicity: his lights are soft, his shades mellow, and his colouring mild and harmonious. His touches have neither the force nor harshness of Rubens; nor does he seem, like Reynolds, ever to have aimed at adorning his portraits with the elegance of adventitious graces. His mind, tranquil and serene, delighted rather to wander with Thomson in the enchanting fields of Tempe, than to burst, with Michelangelo, into the ruder scenes of the terrible and the sublime. His compositions are distinguished by a placid tranquility and ease rather than a striking brilliancy of effect: and his portraits may be more readily mistaken for those of Kneller than any other eminent artist; not only because of the general resemblance in the dresses, which were those of the times, they being contemporaries, but also for the manner of working, and the similarity and bland mellowness of their tints. Several portraits painted by Mr. Aikman in Scotland have been in the possession of the Duke of Argyll, the Duke of Hamilton, and others. There has also been a portrait of Aikman in the gallery of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, painted by himself; and another of the same in the possession of his daughter, Mrs. Forbes, in Edinburgh, whose only son represented the family of Aikman. Sources This article incorporates text from Chalmers, Alexander. "Aikman, William, The General Biographical Dictionary: Containing an Historical and Critical Account of the Lives and Writings of the most Eminent Persons in Every Nation; Particularly the British and Irish; from the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time". new ed. rev. and enl. London: Nichols [et al.], 1812–1817. 32 vols. Further reading Macmillan, Duncan (1984), Scottish Painting: Ramsay to Raeburn, in Parker, Geoffrey (ed.), Cencrastus No. 17, Summer 1984, pp. 25 – 29, External links Works in the National Galleries of Scotland 1682 births 1731 deaths 18th-century Scottish painters Scottish male painters Scottish portrait painters