Editing Alexander Nasmyth (section)

==Biography==
[[File:Alexander Nasmyth - View of the City of Edinburgh - Google Art Project.jpg|thumbnail|260px|''View of the City of Edinburgh'', [[Yale Center for British Art]]]]
[[File:The grave of Alexander Nasmyth, St Cuthbert's Churchyard.png|thumb|180px|The grave of Alexander Nasmyth, St Cuthbert's Churchyard]]
Nasmyth was born in [[Edinburgh]] on 9 September 1758.<ref name="EB1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Nasmyth, Alexander|volume=19|pages=248-249}} Endnote: For an account of the Nasmyth family see James Nasmyth's ''Autobiography'' (1883)</ref> He studied at the [[Royal High School (Edinburgh)|Royal High School]] and the [[Edinburgh College of Art|Trustees' Academy]] and was apprenticed to a coachbuilder. Aged sixteen, he was taken to London by portrait painter [[Allan Ramsay (1713-1784)|Allan Ramsay]] where he worked on subordinate parts of Ramsay's works.<ref name="EB1911" /> Nasmyth returned to Edinburgh in 1778, where he worked as a portrait painter. Offered a loan by [[Patrick Miller of Dalswinton]], Nasmyth left in 1782 for Italy, where he remained two years furthering his studies.<ref name="EB1911" /><ref name = "Skinner1966">[[Basil Skinner|Skinner, Basil]] (1966), ''Scots in Italy in the 18th Century'', [[National Galleries of Scotland]], Edinburgh, p. 25</ref> In Italy he devoted most of his attention to landscape painting, and is recorded as having copied a work by [[Claude Lorrain]].<ref>Macmillan 1986, p.142. Macmillan suggests that his interest in Classical landscape painting may have been due to the example of the Scottish artist [[Jacob More]], then resident in Rome.</ref>

Nasmyth returned to Scotland where for the next few years he continued his career as a portraitist. He painted some works in the style of Ramsay, but most were [[conversation piece]]s with outdoor settings.<ref name="EB1911" /><ref name=mac142>Macmillan 1986, p.142</ref> His portrait of [[Robert Burns]], who became a close friend,<ref name=mac142/> is now in the [[Scottish National Gallery]]. Eventually, Nasmyth's strong [[Liberalism|Liberal]] opinions offended many of his aristocratic patrons in a politically charged Edinburgh, leading to a falling off in commissions for portraits,<ref name="EB1911" /> and in 1792 he completely abandoned the genre, turning instead to landscape painting. He also began painting scenery for theatres, an activity he continued for the next thirty years, and in 1796 painted a [[panorama]].<ref name=mac144>Macmillan 1986, p.144</ref>

His landscapes are all of actual places, and architecture is usually an important element.<ref>Macmillan 1986, p.141</ref> Some works were painted to illustrate the effects that new buildings would have on an area, such as ''Inverary from the Sea'', painted for the Duke of Argyll to show the setting a proposed [[lighthouse]].<ref name=mac145>Macmillan 1986, p.145</ref>

Nasmyth had a great interest in engineering, and proposed several ideas that were later widely used, although he never [[patent]]ed any of them.<ref name=mac145/> In October 1788, when Patrick Miller sailed the world's first successful steamship, designed by [[William Symington]], on Dalswinton Loch, Nasmyth was one of the crew.<ref name=mac142/>

He was employed by members of the Scottish nobility in the improvement and beautification of their estates. He designed the circular temple covering [[Stockbridge, Edinburgh#St Bernard's Well|St Bernard's Well]] by the [[Water of Leith]] (1789), and bridges at [[Almondell and Calderwood Country Park|Almondell]], West Lothian, and [[Tongland]], Kirkcudbrightshire.<ref>{{Historic Environment Scotland|num=LB27905|desc=St Bernard's Well, off St Bernard's Bridge, including Stair, Walls, Railings and Plaque|cat=A|access-date=18 March 2019}}</ref> In 1815 he was one of those invited to submit proposals for the expansion of Edinburgh New Town.<ref>Macmillan 1986, p.142.</ref>

Nasmyth set up a drawing school<ref name=mac144/> and "instilled a whole generation with the importance of drawing as a tool of empirical investigation";<ref name=turner/> his pupils included [[David Wilkie (artist)|David Wilkie]], [[David Roberts (painter)|David Roberts]], [[Clarkson Stanfield]] and [[John Thomson of Duddingston]];<ref name=mac145/> and it was probably from him that John James Ruskin (father of [[John Ruskin]]) learned to paint as a schoolboy in Edinburgh in the later 1790s.<ref name=turner>{{cite book|first=Ian|last= Warrell|editor1-link=Robert Hewison|editor1-first=Robert |editor1-last=Hewison|display-editors=etal|title=Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites|publisher= Tate Gallery Publishing|date= 2000|page=13}}</ref> Another successful pupil was the painter, teacher, art dealer and connoisseur [[Andrew Wilson (artist)|Andrew Wilson]], who had his first art training under Nasmyth. Nasmyth was not only the tutor to the polymath [[Mary Somerville]] but he also introduced her to the leading intellectuals in Edinburgh.<ref name="Chapman2014">{{cite book|first=Allan |last=Chapman|title=Mary Somerville and the World of Science|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i4pcBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA17|date=2014|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-09399-4|page=17}}</ref>

Nasmyth died at home, 47 York Place<ref>{{cite web|url=http://digital.nls.uk/directories/browse/pageturner.cfm?id=83401299&mode=transcription|title=(178) - Scottish Post Office Directories > Towns > Edinburgh > 1805-1834{{snd}}Post Office annual directory > 1832-1833{{snd}}Scottish Directories - National Library of Scotland|access-date=7 May 2016}}</ref> (roughly opposite the house of [[Sir Henry Raeburn]]), in Edinburgh. He was buried in [[The Parish Church of St Cuthbert|St Cuthbert's Church]]yard at the west end of Princes Street. The grave lies in the southern section towards the south-west.