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RSA Annual report 1893, Notice IX: "The Council regret having to record the death of John Pettie, RA, one of the most distinguished Honorary Members of the Academy, which took place at Hastings on 20th February, where he was temporarily residing. Born at Edinburgh in 1839, he was partly educated there and afterwards at east Linton, where, at ten years of age, he removed with his father. Having shown a decided taste for drawing, he returned to Edinburgh and became a student of the Board of Trustees School, then under Robert Scott Lauder RSA, Thereafter he passed to the Life School of the Royal Scottish Academy, and in 1859, when in his 20th year, he exhibited for the first time in the Annual Exhibition of the Academy. His works from the beginning attracted attention, and his subsequent career, both in his native city and in London, where he took up his abode in 1863, was one of marked success. Dramatic and historical incidents in the Elizabethan and Cromwellian periods furnished him with material for the greater part of his subjects. Diligent and energetic, he produced numerous works distinguished by skillful draughtsmanship, vigorous execution, and richness of colour. Latterly he turned much of his time and attention to portrait painting. Although long resident in London, John Pettie was a frequent exhibitor in the Annual Exhibitions of the Royal Scottish Academy, where his works were highly appreciated. They will be greatly missed from the walls. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1867, and attained the full rank of Academician in 1874. The Royal Scottish Academy, in recognition of his eminent ability as a painter, elected him to the Degree of Honorary Member in 1871. The Assembly of Academicians, in 1st March, sent to his widow a letter of condolence and sympathy with her and her family in their bereavement; also, an expression of the high appreciation in which John Pettie was held as an artist, and as a true, generous, and warm-hearted man."