Robert McQueen, Lord Brayfield

Artist:

John Kay (1742 - 1826)

$A 110

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S/N: ASOOP-071–228868

(DRW04)

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Details

Full Title:

Robert McQueen, Lord Brayfield

Date:

C1793

(1842)

Artist:

John Kay (1742 - 1826)

Condition:

In good condition

Technique:

Etching

Image Size:

90mm

x 120mm

Genuine antique
dated:

1842

Description:

Portrait showing Robert McQueen, Lord Braxfield (1722-1799) was a Scottish advocate and judge. In 1776 he became a judge and took the title Lord Braxfield. In 1788 he became Lord Justice Clerk, the leading judge in Scotland. He took an active role in the suppression of the ‘Friends of the People Society’ (a British organization that was seeking parliamentary reform). McQueen was famously quoted “Let them bring me prisoners, and I will find them law.”

Kay etched and sold his caricature portraits individually from 1784 until the 1820’s. These individually issued etchings were collected over many years by Hugh Paton and issued as, A series of original portraits and caricature etchings by the late John Kay.

John Kay (1742 - 1826)

Kay was a Scottish caricaturist and engraver. He was born near Dalkeith, where his father was a mason. At thirteen he was apprenticed to a barber, whom he served for six years. He then went to Edinburgh, where in 1771 he obtained the freedom of the city by joining the corporation of barber-surgeons. In 1784 he published his first caricature, of Laird Robertson. In 1785, induced by the favour which greeted certain attempts of his to etch in aquafortis, he took down his barber's pole and opened a small print shop in Parliament Close. There he continued to flourish, painting miniatures, and publishing at short intervals his sketches and caricatures of local celebrities and oddities, who abounded at that period in Edinburgh society. Kay's famous shop on the Royal Mile was destroyed during the Great Edinburgh Fire of November 1824.

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