Katherine Read
(1723-1778)
Mrs James Finlay, née Helen Wedderburn (1747-1786)
c.1770
Pastel on paper
47 x 37 cm
Acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
Provenance
By descent to Edward Bullock Finlay, Avebury, 1898
Private Collection, UK
Literature
Alexander Wedderburn, The Wedderburn Book - A History of the Wedderburns in the Counties of Berwick and Forfar, designed of Wedderburn, Kingennie, Easter Powrie, Blackness, Balindean and Gosford...1296-1896, 1898, Vol.I, p.230, n.2
Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, London, online edition, J.612.2541
References
[1] Helen was the only child to survive to adulthood
[2] By 1740 he is said to have been working as a ‘shipmaster in London.’ Alexander Wedderburn, The Wedderburn Book - A History of the Wedderburns in the Counties of Berwick and Forfar, designed of Wedderburn, Kingennie, Easter Powrie, Blackness, Balindean and Gosford...1296-1896, 1898, Vol.1, p.229
[3] Alexander Wedderburn, The Wedderburn Book - A History of the Wedderburns in the Counties of Berwick and Forfar, designed of Wedderburn, Kingennie, Easter Powrie, Blackness, Balindean and Gosford...1296-1896, 1898, Vol.1, p.229
[4] ‘The Providence of Dundee’ was inherited from his father upon the latter’s death in 1734
[5] Newcastle Courant, 30 April 1737
[6] Sir John Wedderburn served as the 'Collector of Excise’ for the Young Pretender and was also a member of his Life Guards. He was captured at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. It was with Alexander Wedderburn that ‘James Wedderburn ‘tooke boat’ on 27 Nov. 1746, to see if anything could still be done to avert the execution of his father, Sir John.’ Alexander Wedderburn, The Wedderburn Book - A History of the Wedderburns in the Counties of Berwick and Forfar, designed of Wedderburn, Kingennie, Easter Powrie, Blackness, Balindean and Gosford...1296-1896, 1898, Vol.I, p.229
[7] A.F. Stuart, ‘Miss Katherine Read, Court Paintress’, in Scottish Historical Review, Vol.II, 1905, p.38
[8] Dr James Finlay was originally from Bogside, near Glasgow. Helen Wedderburn died young, at the ageof 39, having borne five children
[9] The Wedderburn Book also references another portrait of Helen, an oil painting by an unknown artist, painted when she was around 14 or 15 years old
[10] This is almost certainly untrue, particularly considering Read's several commissions from Queen Charlotte. Alexander Wedderburn, The Wedderburn Book - A History of the Wedderburns in the Counties of Berwick and Forfar, designed of Wedderburn, Kingennie, Easter Powrie, Blackness, Balindean and Gosford...1296-1896, 1898, Vol.I, p.230, n.2
This beautiful pastel portrait of Mrs. James Finlay, née Helen Wedderburn, is believed to have been drawn around 1770, when the sitter was in the early years of adulthood. Helen was the only daughter of Marian Stuart of Inverness and Alexander Wedderburn, a native of Dundee. [1] Her father led an adventurous life and was variously described as a shipmaster, [2] a merchant captain, and smuggler. [3] According to the Newcastle Courant of 30 April 1737, Alexander Wedderburn, captain of the Providence, [4] was apprehended on his return to Inverness from Hamburg, having smuggled ‘1545 Gallons of Spirits, besides several parcels of fine China and other Goods.’ [5]
Katherine Read and Helen Wedderburn were connected through the extended Wedderburn family. Read’s uncle, Sir John Wedderburn, 5th Baronet of Blackness, a relative of Helen Wedderburn’s father, was executed on Kennington Common for his prominent role in the Jacobite rising of 1745. [6] In an article published in the Scottish Historical Review in 1905, A.F. Stuart notes that Read ‘painted many portraits of the Wedderburn family.’ [7] Helen married Dr James Finlay in Edinburgh on 22 March 1774, just a few years after sitting for this portrait. [8] The pastel is recorded in the Wedderburn Book (1898), where it is described as ‘a beautiful portrait [of Helen] in pastels, aet. 23 or so, in the attitude of singing from a music book, by Miss Read. [9] A family tradition says that George III wished a copy, but the lady refused to make one for a Hanoverian usurper.’ [10]
Katherine Read
(1723-1778)
Mrs James Finlay, née Helen Wedderburn (1747-1786)
c.1770
Pastel on paper
47 x 37 cm
Acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
Provenance
By descent to Edward Bullock Finlay, Avebury, 1898
Private Collection, UK
Literature
Alexander Wedderburn, The Wedderburn Book - A History of the Wedderburns in the Counties of Berwick and Forfar, designed of Wedderburn, Kingennie, Easter Powrie, Blackness, Balindean and Gosford...1296-1896, 1898, Vol.I, p.230, n.2
Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, London, online edition, J.612.2541
References
[1] Helen was the only child to survive to adulthood
[2] By 1740 he is said to have been working as a ‘shipmaster in London.’ Alexander Wedderburn, The Wedderburn Book - A History of the Wedderburns in the Counties of Berwick and Forfar, designed of Wedderburn, Kingennie, Easter Powrie, Blackness, Balindean and Gosford...1296-1896, 1898, Vol.1, p.229
[3] Alexander Wedderburn, The Wedderburn Book - A History of the Wedderburns in the Counties of Berwick and Forfar, designed of Wedderburn, Kingennie, Easter Powrie, Blackness, Balindean and Gosford...1296-1896, 1898, Vol.1, p.229
[4] ‘The Providence of Dundee’ was inherited from his father upon the latter’s death in 1734
[5] Newcastle Courant, 30 April 1737
[6] Sir John Wedderburn served as the 'Collector of Excise’ for the Young Pretender and was also a member of his Life Guards. He was captured at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. It was with Alexander Wedderburn that ‘James Wedderburn ‘tooke boat’ on 27 Nov. 1746, to see if anything could still be done to avert the execution of his father, Sir John.’ Alexander Wedderburn, The Wedderburn Book - A History of the Wedderburns in the Counties of Berwick and Forfar, designed of Wedderburn, Kingennie, Easter Powrie, Blackness, Balindean and Gosford...1296-1896, 1898, Vol.I, p.229
[7] A.F. Stuart, ‘Miss Katherine Read, Court Paintress’, in Scottish Historical Review, Vol.II, 1905, p.38
[8] Dr James Finlay was originally from Bogside, near Glasgow. Helen Wedderburn died young, at the ageof 39, having borne five children
[9] The Wedderburn Book also references another portrait of Helen, an oil painting by an unknown artist, painted when she was around 14 or 15 years old
[10] This is almost certainly untrue, particularly considering Read's several commissions from Queen Charlotte. Alexander Wedderburn, The Wedderburn Book - A History of the Wedderburns in the Counties of Berwick and Forfar, designed of Wedderburn, Kingennie, Easter Powrie, Blackness, Balindean and Gosford...1296-1896, 1898, Vol.I, p.230, n.2
This beautiful pastel portrait of Mrs. James Finlay, née Helen Wedderburn, is believed to have been drawn around 1770, when the sitter was in the early years of adulthood. Helen was the only daughter of Marian Stuart of Inverness and Alexander Wedderburn, a native of Dundee. [1] Her father led an adventurous life and was variously described as a shipmaster, [2] a merchant captain, and smuggler. [3] According to the Newcastle Courant of 30 April 1737, Alexander Wedderburn, captain of the Providence, [4] was apprehended on his return to Inverness from Hamburg, having smuggled ‘1545 Gallons of Spirits, besides several parcels of fine China and other Goods.’ [5]
Katherine Read and Helen Wedderburn were connected through the extended Wedderburn family. Read’s uncle, Sir John Wedderburn, 5th Baronet of Blackness, a relative of Helen Wedderburn’s father, was executed on Kennington Common for his prominent role in the Jacobite rising of 1745. [6] In an article published in the Scottish Historical Review in 1905, A.F. Stuart notes that Read ‘painted many portraits of the Wedderburn family.’ [7] Helen married Dr James Finlay in Edinburgh on 22 March 1774, just a few years after sitting for this portrait. [8] The pastel is recorded in the Wedderburn Book (1898), where it is described as ‘a beautiful portrait [of Helen] in pastels, aet. 23 or so, in the attitude of singing from a music book, by Miss Read. [9] A family tradition says that George III wished a copy, but the lady refused to make one for a Hanoverian usurper.’ [10]