James Skene

James Skene

James Skene of Rubislaw (1775–1864) was a Scottish lawyer and amateur artist, best known as a friend of Sir Walter Scott.

Life

George Skene of Rublislaw, 1706

The second son of George Skene of Rubislaw, near Aberdeen, and his wife Jean Moir, he was born at Rubislaw, Aberdeen on 7 March 1775; his father died the following year. In 1783 his widow moved to Edinburgh, for the education of her seven children.[1]

James's sister, Helen Skene, never married and died on 20 July 1842, age 75, a spinster in Florence where she is buried in the English Cemetery, Florence. His sister, Catherine, married a Dr Kissock in Edinburgh, their daughter, Janet Jardine Kissock, is buried in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome.[2]

James Skene attended Edinburgh high school. An elder brother died in 1791, and he became heir of Rubislaw. At 21 he went to Germany as a student, and, returning to Edinburgh, was admitted to the Scottish bar in 1797. His friendship with Sir Walter Scott was built on his knowledge of German literature. In 1797 Skene became cornet of the Edinburgh light horse, the regiment largely organised by Scott, who was himself its quartermaster, secretary, and paymaster.[1]

In 1802 Skene revisited the continent of Europe, for a time in company with George Bellas Greenough; and he became a member of the Geological Society. Returning to Edinburgh in 1816, he joined literary and scientific societies. In 1817 he became a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and was for a long period the curator of its library and museum. He was active in the Scottish Society of Antiquaries.[1] He was secretary to the Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland.[3]

For the health of his family, Skene went to Greece in 1838, staying for several years near Athens, in a villa built to his own design. Returning in 1844, he lived first at Leamington Spa and then at Frewen Hall, Oxford, where he died on 27 November 1864.[1]

Works and legacy

The Porteous Riot by James Skene

Skene produced A Series of Sketches of the existing Localities alluded to in the Waverley Novels, etched from his own drawings (Edinburgh, 1829}. He wrote for the Transactions of societies to which he belonged, and edited John Spalding's History of the Troubles in Scotland for the Bannatyne Club (1828). He wrote the article "Painting" in the Edinburgh Encyclopædia. Full-page illustrations in The Memorials of Skene of Skene are from his drawings.[1]

Skene as a watercolourist was prolific, painting landscapes and antiquities.[4] He is said to have left over 500 watercolour drawings of Greece. He kept in close contact with Sir Walter Scott: the original introduction to Quentin Durward was inspired by Skene's knowledge of France, from a visit in 1822, and the Jewish theme in Ivanhoe was at least partly his suggestion. John Gibson Lockhart, in his biography of Scott, drew heavily on Skene's manuscripts.[1]

Family

In 1806 Skene married Jane Forbes (1787–1862), youngest child of Sir William Forbes, 6th Baronet of Pitsligo; her brother William, the seventh Baronet, married, in 1797, Scott's first love, Williamina Stuart. Jane Skene was praised by Scott, who wrote in his Journal, i. 75, that she was "a most excellent person". The surviving family of the couple consisted of three sons and four daughters, the second son being William Forbes Skene.[1] Felicia Mary Frances Skene, the religious writer, was the fourth daughter.[3] Another daughter, Caroline, married Alexandros Rizos Rangavis.[5]

The first son George (1807–1875) was an advocate and Glasgow University professor. James Hay Skene (1812–1886) (or James Henry Skene) the author was the third son.[6] The eldest daughter Eliza (1810–1886) married Charles de Heidenstam (sv:Carl Peter von Heidenstam) at Athens in 1840; the second daughter Catherine (born 1815) married John Foster Grierson.[7] James Henry Skene's wife Rhalou was the sister of Alexander Rizos Rangavis, the surname appearing in other forms such as Rhangabé.[8]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7  Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Skene, James". Dictionary of National Biography. 52. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. ↑ http://www.florin.ms/ChapterB.html
  3. 1 2 Couper, Sarah. "Skene, James". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25668. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. ↑ H. L. Mallalieu (1986). The Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists up to 1920. Antique Collectors' Club. p. 312. ISBN 1-85149-025-6.
  5. ↑ Kostis Kourelis, Byzantine Houses and Modern Fictions: Domesticating Mystras in 1930s Greece, Dumbarton Oaks Papers Vol. 65/66 (2011-2012), pp. 297–331, at pp. 314–5. Published by: Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University. JSTOR 41933713
  6. ↑ National Library of Scotland, Inventory Acc.12092 Papers of the family of Skene of Rubislaw etc. (PDF), at p.2
  7. ↑ Skene, William Forbes (1887). "Memorials of the family of Skene of Skene, from the family papers, with other illustrative documents". Internet Archive. Aberdeen: New Spalding Club. pp. 141–2. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  8. ↑ Sir Bernard Burke (1863). A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland. Harrison. p. 1381.
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Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Skene, James". Dictionary of National Biography. 52. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 

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