Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/147

 the annual exhibitions of that body, of which he was elected an associate in 1846 and an academician in 1859. In his earlier years he was much employed as a draughtsman on wood for book illustration, and he devoted himself a good deal to modelling, of which he was for some years teacher in the Watt Institute, Adam Square, in succession to his father. He also modelled many groups of horses, dogs, and cattle, which were afterwards cast in silver. In 1857 he exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy ‘Llewellyn and Gelert,’ a picture which attracted much attention, as did also, a few years later, a ‘Highland Raid,’ representing the Macgregors defending the cattle which they had raided against an attack of the royal troops. The latter was purchased for their prize distribution by the Royal Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts, and a replica of the former was painted for the queen, who possesses also ‘The Pass of Leny: Cattle going to Falkirk Tryst.’ In 1865 he exhibited ‘A Cottage Bedside at Osborne,’ the queen reading the Bible to a sick fisherman, which became very popular through the engraving of it by William Henry Simmons [q. v.] ‘A Challenge,’ exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy, and also at the Royal Academy in London in 1877, still further increased his reputation. ‘Dandie Dinmont and his Terriers,’ engraved by James Stephenson, was one of many pictures suggested by incidents in the ‘Waverley Novels.’

Steell painted two large hunt pictures: one, in 1863, of the Earl of Wemyss, and another, in 1871, of Colonel Carrick Buchanan of Drumpellier. The latter was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London, and both have been engraved. He painted also several equestrian portraits, including those of the Earl of Eglinton and Winton and of Andrew Gillon of Wallhouse, and in 1868 that of the Lord-president Inglis with a shooting party at Glencorse. Many of his later works were large studies of animals executed in oil, tempera, and charcoal, chiefly for the decoration of highland mansions. His last picture, entitled ‘Lochaber no more,’ which he left nearly finished, was rendered doubly pathetic by the artist's death. In 1872 he was appointed animal-painter to the queen for Scotland, and he held a similar office in connection with the Highland and Agricultural Society. He succeeded Sir William Fettes Douglas, P.R.S.A., as curator of the National Gallery of Scotland in 1882.

Steell died at 23 Minto Street, Edinburgh, on 31 Jan. 1894, and was interred in the cemetery at Morningside. He was an admirable draughtsman of horses and dogs, and especially of highland cattle. He was a good shot and a keen angler, and throughout his life was fond of outdoor amusements. One of his sons, David George Steell, A.R.S.A., is a painter of animals and sporting subjects.

[Scotsman, 1 Feb. 1894; Academy, 1894, i. 133; Art Journal, 1894, p. 125; Annual Report of the Royal Scottish Academy, 1894; Exhibition Catalogues of the Royal Scottish Academy, 1832–1894; Royal Academy Exhibition Catalogues, 1865–80.]

 STEELL, JOHN (1804–1891), sculptor, son of John Steell, a carver and gilder, by his wife, Margaret Gourlay of Dundee, and elder brother of Gourlay Steell [q. v.], was born at Aberdeen on 18 Sept. 1804. When he was about a year old his father removed to Edinburgh, and he was in due course apprenticed to him as a wood-carver, and placed also under the tuition of John Graham in the Trustees' Academy. On the expiration of his apprenticeship he adopted the profession of sculpture, studying at Rome for several years. On his return to Edinburgh in 1833 he modelled the group of ‘Alexander taming Bucephalus,’ which has since been cast in bronze and placed in St. Andrew Square. This work, which was often reproduced, brought him at once into notice, and he received from the board of manufactures a special reward of 50l. Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey [q. v.] urged the rising artist to remove his studio to London, but his desire to devote himself to the improvement of art in his native country led him to decline the prospects of fame and fortune offered to him. His success, however, led to a commission for the colossal statue of the queen which surmounts the Royal Institution, and this was followed by the competition for the statue of Sir Walter Scott which adorns Kemp's Gothic monument in Prince's Street, in which Steell won the first place. This seated figure of Sir Walter Scott is stated to have been the first marble statue commissioned in Scotland from a native artist, although that by Steell of Professor Blaikie at Aberdeen was the first finished. It has frequently been reproduced in various sizes and materials. Among other commissions which followed was that for the colossal equestrian statue in bronze of the Duke of Wellington which stands in front of the General Register House in Edinburgh.

Steell's principal work, however, is the Scottish memorial to the prince consort erected in Charlotte Square, which was inaugurated by the queen in August 1876, when the sculptor was knighted.

Other notable statues by him are those of