MacNee; Sir; Daniel (1806-1882); Artist, RA

Macnee

Daniel

1806

1882

Sir

Artist

MacNee was born on the 4th June 1806 in Fintry, Stirlingshire, and died in Edinburgh on the 17th January 1882. When he turned thirteen he was apprenticed to the landscape artist John Knox, and afterwards worked for a year as a lithographer. He was later employed by a company in Cumnock, Ayrshire, to paint the ornamental lids of snuff-boxes. He studied in Edinburgh at the Trustees' Academy under William Allan, where he supported himself by illustrating publications for the engraver William Home Lizars, and finally moved to Glasgow where he established himself as a successful portrait painter. In 1829 he was admitted as a member of the Royal Scottish Academy; and on the death of Sir George Harvey in 1876 he was elected president, and was knighted. Several of Macnee's works are held by the National Portrait Gallery in London and at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh.