Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/291

 in Edinburgh, then under the direction of Sir William Allan [q. v.] After studying in London and Paris he returned to Edinburgh and settled there. In 1843 he was appointed an assistant, and in 1845—in succession to Thomas Duncan, R.S.A.—first master or director of the ornamental department of the School of Art, under the board of trustees for manufactures in Scotland. In 1848 he was elected an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy, where for some years one or more of his pictures appeared in every exhibition. He exhibited only once in the Royal Academy in London, sending in 1853 ‘A Window-seat at Wittemburg, 1526—Luther, the married priest.’ He possessed much originality and taste in design, and was a bold and efficient colourist. One of his most successful pictures, ‘An Incident in the History of the Great Plague,’ is in the National Gallery of Scotland, which also possesses a copy, by the artist himself, of a large picture painted by him as an altar-piece for the chapel at Murthley Castle, ‘The Apparition of the Cross to Constantine.’ Several of the illustrations of the Abbotsford edition of ‘The Bride of Lammermoor’ are from his designs. Christie delivered several courses of lectures at the Philosophical Institution in Edinburgh, and elsewhere, on various subjects connected with art. A paper by him ‘On the Adaptation of previous styles of Architecture to our present Wants' is printed in the ‘Transactions of the Architectural Institute of Scotland,’ vol. iii. (1854). He died 5 May 1860.

 CHRISTIE, HUGH (1710–1774), school-master and grammarian (erroneously called by Chalmers and Rose, William), was the third son of Alexander Christie, great-uncle of William Christie, unitarian writer [q. v.] He was born at Garvock, Kincardineshire, in 1710, and educated at King's College, Aberdeen, where he took the degree of M.A. in 1730. He was licensed to reach as a probationer of the church of Scotland, but never held any parochial charge. Soon after taking his degree he was a pointed rector of the grammar school of Brechin, an office which-the held until he was elected rector of the grammar school of Montrose, where he remained until his death (1774), and where he obtained considerable popularity and success.

He is the author of: 1. ‘A Grammar of the Latin Tongue, after a New and Easy Method adapted to the capacities of Children,’ Edinburgh, 1758, 2nd edit. 1768 sm. 8vo. 2. ‘A New and Easy Introduction to the making of Latin adapted to the Latin Grammar lately published by H. C., with remarks upon the Idioms of the Roman Language,' Edinburgh, 1760, 1780 sm. Bvo. (There were probably other editions of both books, as they were extensively used in and about Montrose and Brechin in the early part of this century.)

 CHRISTIE, JAMES, the elder (1730–1803), auctioneer, resigned a commission in the navy for the employment of an auctioneer. His first sale took place on 5 Dec. 1766, at rooms in Pall Mall, formerly occupied by the print warehouse of Richard Dalton. On these premises the exhibitions of the Royal Academy of Arts were held until 1779. Christie afterwards moved next door to Gainsborough, who lived in the western wing of Schomburg House. He was of tall and dignified appearance, remarkable for eloquence and professional enthusiasm, and was intimate with Garrick, Reynolds, and Gainsborough, and other men of note. He died at his house in Pall Mall on 8 Nov. 1803, aged 73, and was buried at St. James’s burial-ground in the Hampstead Road. He was twice married, and of the first marriage had four sons, of whom the eldest, James [q. v.], succeeded him; the second, Charles, captain in the 5th regiment of Bengal Native Infantry, was killed (1812) in Persia during a Russian attack; the third, Albany, died in 1821; and Edward, the fourth, died a midshipman at Port Royal in Jamaica, 1821. Samuel Hunter Christie [q. v.] was his son by the second marriage.

 CHRISTIE, JAMES, the younger (1773–1831), antiquary and auctioneer, eldest son of James Christie the elder [q. v.], was born in Pall Mall in 1773. He was educated at Eton and was intended for the church, but entered the auctioneer's business, which after his father’s death he carried on with increased success. Christie’s first publication (1801) was on the remote origin of the game of chess. An intimacy with Charles Towneley led him to devote attention to the painted Greek vases, and he printed anonymously and for private circulation in 1806 a limited