(1749 - 1818), portrait painter and miniaturist from Edinburgh; London 1777; exh. RA 1778, 1799; worked in Edinburgh.
1787 - 94 [dep. Leith 30 Nov. 1786] Rome (1787 - 22 May 1794) [Edinburgh Aug. 1798]
Skirving had been a customs officer before turning to painting and he was thirty-seven when he went to Italy, sponsored by Lord Elcho. He sailed from Leith on 30 November 1786 and arrived in Tuscany after ten weeks; for the next seven years he was based in Rome.1 He was probably the 'Mons.Stirvino' living in the parish of S.Maria del Popolo from 1788 to 1790. In March 1788 Lord Gardenstone met Skirving, 'a young painter of merit [who] comes from the neighbourhood of Edinburgh', and gave him several commissions including a miniature portrait of Gavin Hamilton, copies of 'Corregio's admired picture of the Gamesters, the original in the palace of Fidmar' and his Gipsy as a companion [presumably these were versions of the Caravaggio Cardsharps and Gipsy Fortuneteller] and the purchase of cameos and choice pieces of alum from Tosta. Skirving was to act as his agent and was to take charge of Gardenstone's collection of 'Natural History'.2
In 1790 'Mr Skirving - Crayons - Palazzo del Babuino' was listed among the British artists in Rome (Rome List 1790) and in March 1792 he was described as a 'very ingenious' miniature painter.3 He is said to have copied miniatures from the most celebrated works for the English nobility.4 But according to Sir William Forbes, although he painted 'with considerable merit', he took 'so much time and bestows so much labour in finishing his pieces that he can never do much - indeed can scarcely live by his art'.5 Little of Skirving's Italian work has been identified: there is the pastel of Gavin Hamilton (priv. coll.), a Self-portrait (SNPG), and portraits of Patrick Murray and his tutor, the Rev. Daniel Robertson, and among his well-worked drawings is the charming British Tourists in Rome dated 1792 (formerly in the Opp? coll.).
There are few other glimpses of Skirving. He was probably the 'Sherwin' whose name recurs in Mrs Flaxman's Roman diary in 1791 - 2 and who began John Flaxman's portrait on 16 October 1791.6 Sir William Forbes met Lusieri in Naples in March 1793 through an introduction from Skirving.7 On 5 March 1794 Skirving described to George Cumberland some of the antics of the 4th Earl of Bristol,8 and in April he signed (as 'Archibald Skerving') the letter of thanks to Prince Augustus from the English artists in Rome (Rome List 1794). Skirving left Rome on 22 May 1794, but on 4 August he was taken prisoner at sea off Gibraltar by the French and imprisoned in Brest; there he remained for over a year and he returned home a sick man, having developed a serious eye complaint.1 On hearing of his arrest in September 1794 James Smith and Duvivier in Venice had told Cacault, the French charg? d'affaires in Italy, that 'cest artiste nous a toujours manifest? ? Rome l'amour la plus grande pour la R?volution fran?oise'.9
1. See B. Skinner, Scotland's Magazine, Jan. 1959, 43 - 4. 2. Gardenstone, 3:152 - 3. 3. Forbes jnl.MSS (29 Nov. 1792). 4. Laing MSS, IV, 25. 5. Forbes jnl.MSS (Apr. 1793). 6. Mrs Flaxman jnl.MSS 2 (e.g. 1 Feb., 16 Oct., 20 Nov., 26 Dec. 1791; 24 Mar. 1792). 7. Forbes jnl.MSS (23 Mar. 1793). 8. Add.36497, f.290. 9. Montaiglon, 16:385 (and see 383).