Robert Scott Lauder

Robert Scott Lauder studied at Royal High School and Edinburgh College of Art. John Pettie is recorded as having studied under Robert Scott Lauder. The recorded working language is English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Places of work recorded in the authority are Edinburgh and London. Work by Robert Scott Lauder is recorded in the collections of National Galleries Scotland, National Portrait Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, The Dick Institute and Perth Art Gallery.

• Name — Robert Scott Lauder • Born — 25 June 1803 • Died — 21 April 1869 (aged 65) • Spouse — Isabella Thomson • Relatives — James Eckford Lauder (brother) • Illustration — Robert Scott Lauder by John Hutchison, 1861 • Illustration — Self-portrait in 17th-century costume • Illustration — Portrait of David Roberts, 1840 • Illustration — Robert Scott Lauder's grave, Warriston Cemetery

Lauder was born at Silvermills, Edinburgh, the third son of Helen Tait (d.1850) and John Lauder of Silvermills (d. 1838), Burgess of Edinburgh and proprietor of the tannery at Silvermills. After attending the Royal High School, he went to London, where his eldest brother William was engaged in the family business. He returned to Edinburgh in about 1826 and was elected one of the original members of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1830. At this point Lauder was living with his brother William Lauder at 24 Fettes Row in Edinburgh's New Town. On 9 September 1833 at St Cuthbert's Church in Edinburgh, he married Isabella Ramsay Thomson and they then went abroad, accompanied by his younger artist-brother, James Eckford Lauder. Robert studied for some years in Rome, Florence, Bologna, Venice and Munich. Lauder returned to London in 1838 where he lived for several years, where his three children — Isabella, John, and Robert — were baptised at St. Thomas’s Church, Southwark, in 1840, 1841, and 1844 respectively. Whilst in London he exhibited at the Royal Academy and competed in the Westminster Hall competition of 1847, sending his Christ walking on the Sea, which was subsequently purchased by Lady Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts. He became the first president of the short-lived National Institution of Fine Arts and also exhibited there. He later removed back to Edinburgh in 1849 where both his sons — Robert Scott Lauder (born 1844), who became a physician, and John Thomson Lauder (1841–1865) — attended the Edinburgh Academy. Sir Walter Scott's novels provided him with subjects for many of his most successful historical paintings. About 1860, he suffered a paralytic stroke and did not practice after 1861. He died at Edinburgh from a bout of bronchitis on 21 April 1869, still paralysed. He is buried in Warriston Cemetery in Edinburgh, beneath a large pale sandstone stone with white Sicilian marble inset, carved by John Hutchison. It stands to the east side of the westmost path, just south of Horatio McCulloch's grave, but is hard to spot as the sculpture and main monument faces away from the path into the undergrowth. His name is however listed at the head of the reverse side (facing the path) above that of his younger brother, James Eckford Lauder who is buried with him.

In 1833 he married Isabella Thomson (1809–1869) daughter of Rev John Thomson of Duddingston.

Robert Scott Lauder is recorded as painter.