Dundee Art Galleries & Museum: 272-1987-155
Artist: Conte, John Le
Date: 1858
State: 1/1
Size: 43.2 x 33.0 cm
Medium: Mezzotint
| Details | Mezzotint engraving. India paper and pasted onto heavier paper. Stipple and line engraving. Under image; ‘Painted By John McDonald. Edinburgh. Published May 1858 By William H. Vannan. Printseller & publisher, 40 Home Street. Engraved By John Le Conte’.Inscribed on plate, bottom right, facsimile signature: ‘Your obedient servant, James Watt’.
Bottom centre, William H. Vannan print mark. Far bottom, right: ‘Printed by A. McGlashon, Edinburgh’. |
| Description | The image depicts Watt (1736-1819) in his library surrounded by various objects and props relating to his engineer background. In his hands he holds a set of dividers. On the floor lies a picture of his steam engine. The Glasgow Old College buildings can be seen through his window.The original portrait by John McDonald, painted in 1858, is housed in Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum & Art Gallery Collections (GLAHA 44335).
The late 1850s witnessed a plethora of memorabilia relating to Watt, including the publication of James Patrick Muirhead’s Life of James Watt. London, George Murray, 1858. Statues and paintings of the engineer were also commissioned; notably William Thead’s piece in Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester (1857) James Eckford Lauder’s painting James Watt and the Steam Engine: the Dawn of the Nineteenth Century (1855). Watt and his engine also featured on prize medals by Joseph Wyon for the Institution of Civil Engineers. As an engineer himself Orchar would have been fascinated by this subject. Watt’s improvements to the Newcomen and development of the Boulton and Watt engine would revolutionise and possibilities of the steam engine in the late 18th century. According to the sales catalogue Residue of the Valuable Collection of Books belonging to the late J.G. Orchar, Ex-Provost of Broughty Ferry, and sold by the instruction of the Trustees which was held on Wednesday 10 September 1924 at Gillies’ Broughty Ferry Auction Rooms, Fort Street, Broughty Ferry, Orchar had in his collection a number of texts relating to Watt including John Farey, Jr.’s A Treatise on the Steam Engine (1827). Dundee Central Library; Local History Centre: Lamb Collection 8(8) |
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