Hugh Montgomerie was born in 1739, the son of Alexander Montgomerie of Coilsfield, Ayrshire, Scotland....
Hugh Montgomerie was born in 1739, the son of Alexander Montgomerie of Coilsfield, Ayrshire, Scotland. He entered the army in 1756 and was a lieutenant when the Seventy-seventh Regiment, or Montgomerie’s Highlanders, was raised and commissioned by his kinsman Archibald Montgomerie (later eleventh earl of Eglinton). The regiment saw action in the French and Indian War at Fort Duquesne, Ticonderoga, and other places and in 1760 and 1761 against the Cherokees, defeating them in battles at Etchocy and War-Women’s Creek. Hugh Montgomerie had risen to the rank of major by 1780, when Copley painted his portrait, and had been elected member of Parliament for Ayrshire. He succeeded to the title of twelfth earl of Eglinton in 1796.
In 1780 Montgomerie’s bright political career yet lay before him. He was still active in the army, rising to the rank of colonel in 1793, so it would have been natural for him to have himself portrayed as a soldier. The decision to paint him leading a battle fought twenty years earlier probably was the artist’s. The portrait belongs to the tradition of grand-manner portraiture, as promulgated by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), president of the Royal Academy. The concept was to raise the artistic value of a portrait by ennobling mere representation with elements of higher art. Copley’s portrait meets these objectives by incorporating elements of history painting, considered to be the highest genre. It has a color and drama not to be found in simple portraiture, depicting the subject as a man of energy and importance. Another elevating feature, which serves to further flatter the subject, results from Copley’s decision to follow Reynolds’s example by posing Montgomerie in the striding stance of the Apollo Belvedere (Vatican Museum, Rome), then considered the greatest ancient sculpture.
Comparison with the museum’s Portrait of a Lady shows how quickly after his arrival in England Copley had mastered the heightened palette and bravura technique of the best of the English school.
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