The late Sir John Watson Gordon, President of the Royal Scottish Academy of Arts, 1864. Engraving from a photograph of ...the eminent portrait-painter...[who] enjoyed a European reputation as one of the greatest of British masters in his line of art...Young Watson studied four years under John Graham in the Trustees Academy...He early devoted himself to portrait-painting, and pursued it with unwearied diligence. During his long career he has painted many of the most distinguished Scotchmen - including Sir Walter Scott, Professor Wilson, and Dr. Chalmers...The works of Sir John Watson Gordon are wonderfully true to nature and full of the sagacity, shrewdness, and dry humour which often characterise the Scottish physiognomy. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.