Alexander Runciman
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Alexander Runciman
(b Edinburgh, 21 April 1736; d Edinburgh, 21 Oct 1785). He was apprenticed to the decorative painter Robert Norie in 1750, after which he worked independently for a number of years in and around Edinburgh. Before 1767 he seems to have grisailled the portico (destr.) of Penicuik House, Lothian, the architect of which was Sir James Clerk, 3rd Baronet of Penicuik (see CLERK, (3)). Clerk sent him to Rome that year, with a commission to decorate the mansion on his return. Some of Runciman's historical drawings, for example King Lear in the Storm (Edinburgh, N.G.), date from his early years in Edinburgh, but initially in Italy he may have concentrated again on landscapes of a kind that would be suitable for decorative purposes, such as the pen and wash Tomb of the Horatii and Curatii (Edinburgh, N.G.). His first undertaking as a history painter was a colossal painting of Ulysses and Nausicaa (exh. RA 1772; untraced); while working on this he also made plans to turn his Penicuik commission into a monumental cycle of the kind that Gavin Hamilton was then planning for the Borghese, Rome. Like Hamilton's Paris and Helen (Rome, Gal. Borghese), Runciman's planned Achilles cycle is based on Homer's Iliad. Of the several drawings that can be connected with this project, the most interesting are Achilles and Pallas (c. 1770) and the Marriage of Peleus and Thetis (c. 1771; both Edinburgh, N.G.), which reflect a Neo-classical concern with outline in emulation of the simplicity perceived in the art of Homer's time. A group of oval drawings dated 1772 (priv. col.) shows that he studied antique vase paintings; the direction his thoughts were taking is further indicated by a drawing on the theme of the Origin of Painting (1771; priv. col.) and a painting of the same subject (1773; Penicuik House, Lothian).
Part of the Runciman family
See the Abbreviations for further details.
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Alexander Runciman
Alexander Runciman (15 August 1736 – 4 October 1785) was a Scottish painter of historical and mythological subjects. He was the elder brother of John Runciman, also a painter.
He was born in Edinburgh. He studied at Foulis's Academy, Glasgow, and from 1750 to 1762 he was apprenticed to the landscape painter Robert Norie, later becoming a partner in the Norie family firm. He also worked as a stage painter for the Edinburgh Theatre.
In 1767, he went to Rome, where he spent five years. His brother John accompanied him, but died in Naples in the winter of 1768–69. During Runciman's stay in Italy he became acquainted with other artists such as Henry Fuseli and the sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel. Runciman's earliest efforts had been in landscape; he now turned to historical and imaginative subjects, exhibiting his Nausicaa at Play with her Maidens in 1767 at the Free Society of British Artists, Edinburgh.
On his return from Italy after a brief time in London, where in 1772 he exhibited in the Royal Academy, he settled in Edinburgh, and was appointed master of the Trustees' Academy. He was patronized by Sir James Clerk[disambiguation needed 
], whose hall at Penicuik House he decorated with a series of subjects from Ossian. He also created various religious paintings and an altar-piece in the Cowgate Episcopal Church, Edinburgh, and easel pictures of Cymon and Iphigenia, Sigismunda Weeping over the Heart of Tancre, and Agrippina with the Ashes of Germanicus.
He enjoyed a strong reputation as a landscape painter is his lifetime. Some of his works, due to their spontaneity, vigour of style and colour, and unorthodox composition, place him as an early exponent of modern art.
Keith Ralph studied under Alexander Runciman.
Keith Ralph was later commissioned by James Boswell to produce a portrait of John Reid as “my first client in criminal business and as a very remarkable person in the annals of the Court of Justiciary” John Reid was accused of stealing nineteen or so sheep on 6 October 1773. When his portrait was painted he was awaiting execution in Edinburgh’s Tolbooth.[1]
He died in Edinburgh and is buried in Canongate Churchyard. The grave was originally unmarked but a bronze plaque was erected by the RSA in 1866 to his memory (also commemorating his brother John who died in Naples).
Notes
- ^ ‘Boswell’s Edinburgh Journals 1767–1786’ edited by Hugh M Milne – Mercat Press Edinburgh
References
- Duncan Macmillan, "Runciman, Alexander (1736–1785)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 25 June 2007
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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