Sir William Allan Military Prints

William Allan was born in Edinburgh Scotland in1782. His father William Allan was a macer of the Court of Session. William Allan went to the Edinburgh High School, under William Nicol a friend and companion of Robert Burns. William Allan showed an aptitude for art, and became apprentice to a coach-painter. William Allan went to London, and entered the schools of the Royal Academy. His first exhibited picture was a Gipsy Boy with an Ass (1803). In 1805 he travelled, by ship, to Russia but was wrecked at Merel, where he raised funds for the remaining journey by painting portraits of the Dutch consul and others. He then went on to St Petersburg, passing through a great portion of the Russian army on its way to Austerlitz. He spent several years touring Russia and Turkey and collecting arms and armour. William Allan was going to return back to Britain in 1812 but this had to be delayed due to Napoleons invasion of Russia. Allan was able to return to Edinburgh in 1814, and, in 1815, his picture of Circassian Captives attracted notice at the Royal Academy. Allan remained in Edinburgh, and some of his paintings were bought by the Grand Duke Nicholas and some of his scenes from Scottish history suggested by the novels of Sir Walter Scott, such as Death of Archbishop Sharpe and Knox admonishing Mary Queen of Scots. His Death of the Regent Murray (exhibited 1825) was purchased by the Duke of Bedford for 800 guineas, and gained the artist his election as an associate of the Royal Academy. In 1826 he was appointed master of the Trustees School, Edinburgh, an office which he held till a few years before his death. In 1843 Sir William exhibited the Battle of Waterloo from the English side showing Wellingtons view, which was purchased by the Duke opf Wellington, and the next year went again to St. Petersburg, where he painted, for the Czar, Peter the Great teaching his Subjects the Art of Shipbuilding. The last large work which he finished was a second view of the Battle of Waterloo, this time from the Napoleons view, which was exhibited in 1846 at Westminster Hall. At the time of his death in Edinburgh, on 23rd February 1850, Sir William Allan was painting a large painting of the Battle of Bannockburn.