Search for Cabinet Maker's Portrait
June 9 2020
Picture: @atthesignofthepelican
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Scottish furniture expert and dealer Dr Sebastian Pryke has made an appeal on his Instagram account to find a lost portrait of an eighteenth century Edinburgh cabinet maker.
Francis Brodie (1708-1782) was one of Scotland's pre-eminent furniture makers and received the patronage of nearly all of the great northern aristocratic houses including the Dukes of Hamilton, Gordon, Montrose and Argyll, the Earls of Dumfries, Traquair and Stair, Lords Glenorchy, Milton, Arniston and Braco, as well as the Baronets John and James Clerk, Archibald Grant, John Kennedy and Charles Gilmour. Sebastian has penned this interesting blog relating to Brodie's work as a furniture maker in case you'd like to read further.
Portraits of eighteenth century cabinet makers are rare, and furthermore this particular one was painted by his brother the artist Joseph Brodie. It was last seen at an Edinburgh auction in 1982 and has since disappeared.
