Clio

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John Ballantyne
Born Kelso, 1815- 1897

Clio
Oil on canvas

Presented by the Orchar Trustees, 1987
Original Orchar Collection
Museum number 272-1987-3

This painting became part of the Orchar Collection in 1880 when James Guthrie Orchar purchased it for £25 from the Dundee Fine Arts Exhibition. Orchar was an engineer in Dundee, and he, like many of the Dundee industrialists, built up a large personal art collection.

Clio, was the muse of history, and is usually depicted as here, holding a scroll and wearing a laurel crown.

Ballantyne was a portrait and historical genre painter. He studied in Edinburgh and went to London in 1832. In Edinburgh he was a member of a sketching club called 'The Smashers', whose ranks also included Thomas Faed and Sir William Fettes Douglas.