Duncan, Thomas, ARA RSA
1807 – 1845
The son of a miller who played fiddle with the celebrated Niel Gow's band, Duncan was born in the hamlet of Kinclaven in Perthshire. His family removed to Perth whilst Thomas was a child and he attended Perth Academy where his schoolmates included the older David Octavius Hill (and his brother Alexander) and the younger John McLaren Barclay. In 1827 he enrolled under Sir William Allan at the Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh. Amongst the early members of the Royal Scottish Academy, Duncan's prowess was recognised by his appointment firstly as Master of Colour (1838) and subsequently as Headmaster (1844) of the Trustees' Academy and his election as an Associate of the Royal Academy in London in 1843. He served as a Visitor at the RSA's School of the Living Model. Within months he was dead, succumbing to a brain tumour in April 1845 at the age of 37, and leaving a widow and a young family of six. Perth Museum and Art Gallery holds the largest collection of Duncan's oil paintings in public hands, and the National Library of Scotland holds seven notebooks of research conducted by James A Finlayson of Perth (1901-78) in the 1930s for a proposed but unrealised biography of Duncan. vide Rodger, R H:The Brightest Ornament, Thomas Duncan ARA RSA (1807-45) Portrait and History Painter (Perth Museum and Art Gallery, 1995)
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