Elected ARSA: 11 November 1846
Elected RSA: 10 February 1859
Gourlay Steell was born in Edinburgh in 1819 where he was educated and received his early art training in the Board of Trustees’ School under Sir William Allan. He began his art studies under his father who was an eminent wood carver and modeller. At the age of thirteen he exhibited a model of a greyhound in the Annual Exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy.
He worked in drawing and modelling groups of animals for silversmith’s work and was a draughtsman on wood for book illustrations. He also taught at the School of Art, Adam Square for several years. He was appointed Her Majesty’s Animal Painter for Scotland and Animal Painter to the Highland Agricultural Society and in 1882 was appointed as Curator of the National Gallery of Scotland.
