"Colonel George Turnbull and sergeant play a strathspey, 1770, New York" by James Waylen, 26x32inches, 1884. The text below includes the Colonel with a favorite sergeant, the solatium [compensation] of a strathspey after a weary day's work. The prostration of the regimental dog indicates the severity of the march, while the approach of the whisky induces the sergeant to beat time with encreased [stet] emphasis.[1][2]

James Waylen in his 20s was already successful as an artist when he exhibited two portraits and a work entitled Marmion Borne Down by the Scottish Spearmen at Flodden at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1834 to 1838.[3]

Biography

He was born in Devizes, Wiltshire in southern England on 19 April 1810 of Robert and Sarah Waylen.[4] He on 2nd June 1829 came to the office [of the famous civil engineer Thomas Telford, designing London's St Katharine Docks].[5][6]

Working in Telford's drawing office, he made long-life friends with another civil engineer the Scottish George Turnbull who in 1838 asked Waylen to travel from London to Huntingtower near Perth in Scotland to paint a portrait in oils of Turnbull's father William Turnbull who wrote to his son:

Waylen seems just the same unassuming, kindhearted creature as when last here: his heart appears to be in his profession, and he has made more progress in it than could have been expected in the time; we find him very amusing in the accounts of his travels. He has been here more than a week and has made a success in making a likeness of me: everyone who sees it says the likeness is striking.[7]

.

Waylen seems to have had a long artistic career in that he in about 1868 was commissioned by Turnbull to paint Turnbull's three children together. Yet later, in 1884, Waylen as a present to Turnbull painted Turnbull's great uncle Colonel George Turnbull.

References

  1. ↑ Page 387 of the George Turnbull (civil engineer) autobiography (DVD version) British Library, London. A gift to him by the artist.
  2. ↑ Ann Arbor's William L. Clements Library Occasional Bulletins January 2018 page 19.
  3. ↑ The Dictionary of Victorian Painters by Christopher Wood, 2nd edition page 503, 978-0-902028-72-3
  4. ↑ 6 June 1841 census
  5. ↑ Page 10 of George Turnbull, C.E. 437-page memoirs published privately 1893: copy in the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh; and a scanned copy held in the British Library, London on compact disk since 2007
  6. ↑ http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/James Waylen
  7. ↑ Page 34 of George Turnbull, C.E. 437-page memoirs published privately 1893: copy in the National Library, Edinburgh; and a scanned copy held in the British Library, London on compact disk since 2007
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