RUNCIMAN, Alexander, an eminent Scottish painter, was born in Edinburgh in the year 1736. He was the son of an architect, a profession which has a strong affinity to that of painting. The opportunity he thus enjoyed of examining his father’s drawings gave him an early propensity to the art in general, which he very soon evinced by making sketches of any remarkable object, either of nature or art, that happened to come in his way. We are unacquainted with the gradual progress of his fertile genius; but it is not to be supposed that he remained long satisfied with the delineations of straight lines, whilst the fascinating beauties of landscape lay open to his inspection. Water that falls over a rugged precipice in the form of cascades, or the foaming surges of the deep when carried like hoar frost with impetuosity into the air, both astonish and delight by their awful grandeur. These objects, and such as these, would naturally fire, at an early period, the genius of Runciman.

He was bound an apprentice to John and Robert Norry in the year 1750, the former of whom was a landscape-painter of very considerable eminence, and by his instructions our young artist made rapid progress. About the year 1755, when only nineteen years of age, he began professionally to paint landscapes; from which it appeared that they were by no means first attempts, as they evinced his ardent application to study before he ventured to appear at the tribunal of the public. Yet although these were excellent, they were nothing more than the dawn of that distinguished eminence to which he afterwards attained. His reputation as a painter of landscape continued to increase during five years; but such was the strength of his genius, and the amazing fertility of his invention, that he could not rest satisfied with eminence in a single department. About the year 1760 he successfully attempted historical painting, in which his mind had more ample scope than in pourtraying the solemn silence of a field, a humble cottage, or a shepherd void of ambition. Six years of his life were devoted to the study and practice of this important branch of the art, notwithstanding his situation was attended with numerous disadvantages. Great, however, as his attainments were in this department, he could never be satisfied with himself till he had studied in Italy those masterly performances which it was his highest ambition to imitate.

He accordingly set out for Italy in the year 1766, when just thirty years of age; and during a residence of five years in that enchanting country, where specimens of his favourite art are met with in all their grandeur and perfection, he continued to copy the best pictures of the ancient masters, in consequence of which his taste was very much corrected and improved. His conceptions were also greatly enlarged by the steady contemplation of so many works of the greatest and most celebrated artists. The art of composition, which it is of the first consequence for an historical painter to understand, was only to be acquired from the study of its principles, as they are exemplified in such highly-finished models; and to these he applied himself with indefatigable industry. He caught the rich yet chaste colouring of the Venetian school with such truth that he was allowed to surpass all his competitors in this valuable quality.

In the year 1771, Runciman returned to his native country in the full possession of such improvements as were to be expected from the opportunities he had enjoyed, and also with a judgment very much matured. It will readily be granted that he had now some claim upon the patronage of his country, and we are happy to add that this was not withheld; for the Board of Trustees, and Sir James Clerk of Pennycuick, were amongst his patrons; and to Mr Robert Alexander in particular, a respectable merchant in Edinburgh, his country was more indebted for fostering his rising genius than to the whole of its nobility.

An academy for the study of drawing and painting was established in Edinburgh by the honourable trustees for the encouragement of the arts in Scotland, of which De la Cour and Pavilon, two French artists of some ability, were successively chosen masters. When Pavilon died in 1771, an application was made to Runciman to take charge of the academy, the laborious and interesting duties of which he discharged much to his own honour and the benefit of his country.

His masterly work in the hall of Ossian at Pennycuick, the seat of his patron Sir James Clerk, was projected and begun by him soon after his return to Edinburgh. The next performance of Runciman was the picture of the Ascension, painted on the ceiling above the altar of the episcopal chapel, Cowgate, Edinburgh.

The fire and the feeling displayed in his King Lear were conceived and executed in a manner not inferior to those of Shakspeare; and the Andromeda, from which Legat took his highly-finished engraving, will bear a comparison, in colouring, with the works of Titian or Correggio. He appears to have regarded his own historical work of Agrippina landing the ashes of Germanicus her husband, as a capital performance, in the execution of which he had bestowed more than ordinary pains.

Whilst his health permitted, which the painting of the hall of Ossian had much impaired, he continued to superintend the business of the academy, and devoted his leisure hours to the drawing of historical pieces. He enjoyed a competency from his office as teacher, which, with the emoluments arising from his other works, made him independent.

Runciman as a man was possessed of great candour and simplicity of manners, having a happy talent for conversation, which made some of the most distinguished literary characters, such as Hume, Robertson, Kames, and Monboddo, extremely fond of his company; but his genuine worth, and his real goodness of heart, were only fully known to his most intimate friends. He could communicate information with great facility, and gave his best advice to young artists, with a view to facilitate the progress of their improvement.

As a painter, his character has been elegantly drawn by a brother artist, Mr John Brown, who was better qualified than most men to make a proper estimate of his merits. “Mr Runciman was an artist by nature, eminently qualified to excel in all those nobler parts of the art, the attainment of which depends upon the possession of the highest powers of the mind. Though for a long period of years labouring under every possible disadvantage, he completed works which, upon the whole, are equal to the best of those of his contemporaries, and in some respects it may be boldly asserted that they are superior. His fancy was fertile, his discernment of character keen, his taste truly elegant, and his conceptions always great. Though his genius seems to be best suited to the grand and serious, yet many of his works amply prove that he could move with equal success in the less elevated line of the gay and pleasing. His chief excellence was composition, the noblest part of the art, in which it is doubted whether he had any living superior. With regard to the truth, the harmony, the richness, and the gravity of colouring; in that style, in short, which is the peculiar characteristic of the ancient Venetian, and the direct contrast to the modern English school, he was unrivalled. His works, it must be granted, like all those of the present times, were far from being perfect; but it was Mr Runciman’s peculiar misfortune, that his defects [7:19:522]were of such a nature as to be obvious to the most unskilful.” The fine arts and his friends were deprived of this distinguished painter on the 21st of October 1785.