Leo Webster
Specialist
Lot 31
Gourlay Steell RSA(British, 1819-1894)A Celebrated Pug from Mrs Carrick-Buchanan's Drumpellier Kennels
8 November 2023, 14:00 GMT
EdinburghSold for £12,800 inc. premium
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Harriet Stubbs
Cataloguer
Gourlay Steell RSA (British, 1819-1894)
A Celebrated Pug from Mrs Carrick-Buchanan's Drumpellier Kennels
signed and dated 'Gourlay Steell RSA/1866' (lower left)
oil on canvas
71 x 87cm (27 15/16 x 34 1/4in).
within a rounded top slip
signed and dated 'Gourlay Steell RSA/1866' (lower left)
oil on canvas
71 x 87cm (27 15/16 x 34 1/4in).
within a rounded top slip
Footnotes
Provenance
With Christopher Wood Gallery, London.
Exhibited
Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy, 1867, no. 562 (lent by Mrs Carrick-Buchanan).
Another painting of Drumpellier Pugs, again commissioned by Mrs Carrick-Buchanan, was exhibited in 1873 at the Royal Academy in London.
Gourlay Steell was born at 20 Calton Hill in Edinburgh on 22 March 1819 the son of John Steell, a wood-carver, and Margaret Gourlay of Dundee. His elder brother, John, was a sculptor of national standing. Steell studied under William Allan and Robert Scott Lauder. Aged only 13 he had his first piece displayed at the Royal Scottish Academy - a model of a greyhound - and in 1835 he displayed a full-size sculpture of a bloodhound. From that year until death, he exhibited almost continually.
In 1872, Steell was appointed the official painter of animals to Queen Victoria, succeeding Sir Edwin Landseer. In 1882 he replaced Sir William Fettes Douglas as Curator of the National Gallery of Scotland; a post he retained until his death. At this time, he was living with his family at 4 Palmerston Place in Edinburgh's West End.