Self-portrait, seated in an armchair writing
Mary Somerville, ‘with the help of the engraver, Mr Dick.’
Date: Unknown
Medium: Oil on panel
Donor: Lt Col J Ramsay Fairfax, 1958
Mary Somerville attended the Edinburgh academy of painter Alexander Nasmyth, which he had opened to ladies. With interests in architecture and engineering as well as portrait and landscape painting, Nasmyth placed emphasis on the importance of drawing as part of empirical study. He also introduced Mary Somerville to the leading intellectuals in Edinburgh.
A picture by Nasmyth showing a building he had designed – St Bernard’s Well, Stockbridge, Edinburgh – is in the Mary Somerville Room.