Aikman, William
| Dates | 1722-1731 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Location | London | ||
| Vocation | Artist | ||
| Place of Birth | Cairnie | ||
| Marriage | Marion Lawson | ||
| Issue | John; 2 daughters | ||
| Place of birth | Source | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |
Aikman, William, of Cairnie (1682–1731), portrait painter, was born on 24 October 1682 at Cairnie, Forfarshire, the second son and fifth child of William Aikman (1646–1699), laird of Cairnie and advocate, and his wife, Margaret Clerk (d. after 1729), daughter of John Clerk of Penicuik, Edinburghshire. Educated at Edinburgh University, he went on to study painting, working for the Flemish portrait painter John de Medina, who had a successful practice in Edinburgh, and then attending one of the London academies, possibly at the Rose and Crown. By August 1705 he was not only copying pictures in the Royal Collection but had been asked to ‘draw Mrs Hill's picture, who is one of the Queen's greatest favourites’ and was ‘in good hopes to have the honour to draw both Queen [Anne] and Prince [George of Denmark]’ (letter, 23 Aug 1705, Robertson Aikman MSS).
Following the deaths of his father and elder brother Aikman inherited Cairnie, but he had no desire to settle down as a country laird. After much anxious deliberation he sold the estate and set off for Italy, leaving behind with friends Marion Lawson of Cairnmuir, Peeblesshire, whom he had married in 1707 without his family's knowledge. Having visited Florence and copied the works of Carlo Maratta in Rome, he travelled to Turkey and Smyrna, went back to Rome, and then visited Naples before returning to Scotland in 1711. As Medina had recently died, he inherited his former master's clients and was soon accepting public commissions from Edinburgh town council and the Incorporation of Surgeons as well as painting the leading members of Scottish society.
John, second duke of Argyll, one of Aikman's appreciative patrons, then urged him to move to London. Apprehensive about the highly competitive atmosphere in the capital, the expense of premises, and the cost of drapery painters, Aikman was reluctant to move, but agreed to a trial period of six months. His sensitive, perceptive portraits were immediately popular, and in 1722 he settled permanently in London with his wife and children, living at first in Suffolk Street and painting not only the Scottish aristocracy in town but also prominent English figures such as Sir Robert Walpole, the prime minister, and the fourth earl of Chesterfield (Blickling Hall, Norfolk). Further examples of his work are at Blickling Hall. His two self-portraits, in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, are considered to be good examples of his work.
In view of his success, Aikman's admirers urged him to move to more fashionable premises, but he dreaded the expense, declaring that he had ‘no courage to go into it, tho' every body would push me to it as the only means of cutting a figur, as they call it here’ (Clerk of Penicuik MSS, GD18/4583). Although his real ambition was to retire to Scotland, he did eventually move to a large house and studio in Leicester Fields. During a brief visit to Scotland in 1730 his friends were alarmed by his emaciated appearance: he had contracted tuberculosis. Back in London once more, too weak to paint, he was heart-broken by the death of his only son, John, a promising young artist, early in 1731. He himself died on 4 or 7 June that year, in his house in Leicester Fields, and father and son were buried together in Greyfriars churchyard, Edinburgh. Two daughters survived him.
