Child with an apple

The painter and printmaker Andrew Geddes (1783-1844) was born in Edinburgh. After a good education in the high school and in the University of Edinburgh, he was for five years in the excise office, in which his father held the post of deputy auditor.

After the death of his father, who had opposed his desire to become an artist, he went to London and entered the Royal Academy schools. His first contribution to the Academy exhibitions, a St John in the Wilderness, appeared at Somerset House in 1806, and from that year onwards Geddes was a fairly constant exhibitor of figure-subjects and portraits. His well-known portrait of his close friend and fellow Scotsman, David Wilkie, was shown at the Royal Academy in 1816. He alternated for some years between London and Edinburgh, with some excursions on the Continent, but in 1831 settled in London, and was elected associate of the Royal Academy in 1832; he died in London of tuberculosis in 1844.

This charming drypoint is a portrait of Geddes's niece, Agnes Paul, who is shown in a white dress holding out an apple to the viewer: the most charming and innocent of images, but with definite symbolism at another level of Eve succumbing to the temptations of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Stylistically, Agnes's 'parentage' can be traced to late 18th/early 19th century child portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir Thomas Lawrence, who would have been central role models for Geddes when he studied at the Royal Academy.

See: Wikipedia, 'Andrew Geddes (artist), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Geddes_(artist)

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art  April 2018