Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/thomas-hudson-281" aria-label="More by Thomas Hudson" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Thomas Hudson</a>
Samuel Scott Marine Painter
Purchased 1886
actions: postures and motions
adults
artist, painter
arts and entertainment
chair
clothing and personal items
drawing
fine arts and music
furnishings
hat
individuals: male
leaning
man
named individuals
objects
palette
people
portraits
Scott, Samuel
standing
work and occupations
<p>Samuel Scott (c.1702–1770) was one of the leading figures in a new generation of native-born British marine painters, the genre having been introduced by Dutch artists in the 1670s. This informal portrait shows him holding a drawing of ships, the palette indicating his profession as an artist. When this was painted both Hudson and Scott were at the outset of their careers, and a print taken from this was possibly a sort of advert for their respective expertise in painting. Their success as artists enabled them to acquire villas in fashionable Twickenham, west of London, where they lived as neighbours from 1755.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2016</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
Samuel Scott, the Marine Painter
support: 1220 × 978 mm
Purchased 1886
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<p>Samuel Scott (c.1702–1770) was one of the leading figures in a new generation of native-born British marine painters, the genre having been introduced by Dutch artists in the 1670s. This informal portrait shows him holding a drawing of ships, the palette indicating his profession as an artist. When this was painted both Hudson and Scott were at the outset of their careers, and a print taken from this was possibly a sort of advert for their respective expertise in painting. Their success as artists enabled them to acquire villas in fashionable Twickenham, west of London, where they lived as neighbours from 1755.</p>
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2016-02-23T00:00:00
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<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hudson-samuel-scott-the-marine-painter-n01224" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01224</span></a> <b>Samuel Scott</b> <i>c.</i>1731–3
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<p>Oil on canvas 1220×978 (48×38 9/16)
<br/>Purchased by the National Gallery 1886; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1913
<br/>PROVENANCE ...; R.T. Simpson, by whom sold to the National Gallery
<br/>EXHIBITED <i>Samuel Scott Bicentenary</i>, Guildhall Art Gallery 1972 (94); Kenwood 1979 (4, repr.)
<br/>LITERATURE Evelyn Davies, ‘The Life and Work of Thomas Hudson’, MA thesis, Courtauld Institute, 1938, no.94; J.D. Prown, <i>John Singleton Copley</i>, 1966, I, p.61, fig.221; Miles 1976, no.165; Kerslake 1977, I, p.244, II, fig.714
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<p>This informal <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> of Samuel Scott (1702–72), painter of marine and later of Thames-side London views, can be dated to around 1731–3 from a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/mezzotint" title="Glossary definition for 'Mezzotint'"><span>mezzotint</span></a> of it by John Faber (see Chaloner Smith 1883, no.319). It is thus one of Hudson's earliest known portraits, as well as one of his most relaxed, showing his almost exactly coeval fellow-artist leaning on the back of a chair, holding a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> of ships, in a knee-length pose which minimises Scott's well-known shortness of stature.
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<br/>Hudson and Scott were at this time at the very beginning of their careers, and it has been suggested that the mezzotint may have been intended as a form of advertisement for them both in a concerted effort to build up patronage in their respective branches of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a>. It is interesting to note that the accounts of the Courtenay family (who were lifelong patrons of Hudson) at Powderham Castle, Devon, record payments to Hudson for several sea-pieces in 1728 and 1737, and to Scott in 1739 (Miles &amp; Simon 1979; no.4). No marine paintings by Hudson are known, and it is thus difficult to say whether at this early stage he was a rival to Scott, or a middleman for him. The latter would seem more likely, both in view of Hudson's unswerving devotion to portrait painting, and of the fact that in the 1730s he was also willing to occupy himself with other sidelines of the painting profession such as picture cleaning and restoration. In later life both painters crowned their professional success by acquiring villas in Twickenham, where they were near neighbours from 1755 onwards; Hudson's sale of 25 February 1785 shows that he owned at least two sea-pieces by Scott.
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<br/>The pose of this portrait was adapted from Faber's <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engraving</span></a> by J.S. Copley for his portrait of John Amory (Boston Museum of Fine Arts).</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Elizabeth Einberg and Judy Egerton, <i>The Age of Hogarth: British Painters Born 1675-1709</i>, Tate Gallery Collections, II, London 1988
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Catalogue entry
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults artist, painter arts and entertainment chair clothing and personal items drawing fine arts and music furnishings hat individuals: male leaning man named individuals objects palette people portraits Scott, Samuel standing work and occupations