Elected RSA: 10 July 1829
Sir William Allan P.R.S.A., R.A was born in Edinburgh in 1782. He was apprenticed to a coachbuilder, and attended the Master Academy at the same time with Scottish painter David Wilkie, with whom he became lifelong friends. Afterwards, he studied in London at the School of the Royal Academy.
Allan left London and went to stay with a friend in St. Petersburg, Russia. He painted portraits there for a considerable period, and visited Tartary and Turkey, making sketches, and collecting materials for subjects illustrating these countries and the life and manners of the people. He painted “The Circassian Captives”, “Exiles convoyed to Siberia” and similar subjects, some of which were purchased by the emperor, Nicholas I.
Having returned to Britain in 1814, he settled in Edinburgh, was elected as member of the Royal Academy of London, 1835, President of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1838 and, on Wilkie’s death, was made limner to the Queen for Scotland, and Knighted in 1842.
Allan was on terms of friendly intimacy with Sir Walter Scott and other distinguished men of his time. He held the appointment of Master of the Trustees School from 1826 till within a few years of his death, and was looked upon with affection by his students.
He died in February 1850, until which point he was still painting his picture of the Battle of Bannockburn.
