Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macnee, Daniel
MACNEE, Sir DANIEL (1806–1882), portrait-painter, was born at Fintry, Stirlingshire, in 1806. His father, who was a farmer, died when he was only six months old, and he was then taken by his mother to Glasgow, where he was educated, and at the age of thirteen apprenticed for four years to John Knox, a landscape-painter of some local reputation. After the expiration of his apprenticeship he worked for a year as a lithographic draughtsman, and then went with his fellow-pupil, Horatio MacCulloch [q. v.], to Cumnock, Ayrshire, where he was engaged to paint the plane-wood snuff-boxes for which the town is celebrated. He and MacCulloch afterwards went to Edinburgh, where they were employed by William Home Lizars [q. v.], the engraver, in drawing and colouring plates for works on anatomy and natural history. Macnee remained with Lizars for several years, devoting his leisure time to drawing chalk portraits and studying from the antique in the Trustees' Academy. In 1830 he and twenty-three other associates of the Royal Institution were incorporated as academicians of the newly founded Royal Scottish Academy, and in 1832 he returned to Glasgow, where he soon established himself successfully as a portrait-painter. His early practice in this branch of art was to a great extent in crayons, in the use of which he displayed much skill, but his paintings in oils, especially of children, were not less happy. Besides portraits he sent to the early exhibitions of the Royal Scottish Academy simple subject pictures, often consisting only of a single figure, such as 'The Harvest Field,' 'The Peat Sledge,' 'Going to Market,' 'A Burn-side,' a 'Study in the Highlands,' and 'The Bracelet,' which is now in the National Gallery of Scotland. From 1825 he was an unfailing contributor to the exhibitions of the Royal Scottish Academy, as well as to those of the Glasgow Fine Art Institute, and from 1840 to 1881 his works were also seen at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. In 1866 he succeeded John Graham-Gilbert as president of the now extinct West of Scotland Academy, but resigned in 1876, when on the death of Sir George Harvey he was elected president of the Royal Scottish Academy. He was knighted in 1877. He then removed to Edinburgh, where his rare social qualities gained him a wide circle of friends. He was a brilliant conversationalist, and as a teller of stories and racy Scottish anecdotes he had few equals.
One of his most successful portraits was that of Dr. Wardlaw, now in Elgin Place Church, Glasgow, to which a gold medal was awarded at the Paris International Exhibition of 1855. Among others may be mentioned those of Lord Brougham, full-length, in the Parliament House, Edinburgh; Robert, second viscount Melville, in the Archers' Hall, Edinburgh; Robert, eighth lord Belhaven, in the County Hall, Lanark; Lord Inglis; Dr. Baxter; Robert Macnish, author of the 'Philosophy of Sleep;' John Robert MacCulloch; and Andrew Ure, M.D., now in the South Kensington Museum. He painted also many portraits of his brother- artists, the best of which are those of James Francis Williams, Horatio MacCulloch (now in the National Gallery of Scotland), and Clarkson Stanfield, and although that of Sam Bough was not equally good, his portrait of Mrs. Bough was one of his best works. Macnee died at 6 Learmonth Terrace, Edinburgh, on 17 Jan. 1882, aged 75, and was interred in the Dean cemetery.
[Scotsman, 19 and 22 Jan. 1882; Academy, 28 Jan. 1882, by J. M. Gray; Armstrong's Scottish Painters, 1888, p. 46; Catalogue of the National Gallery of Scotland, 1883; Exhibition Catalogues of the Royal Scottish Academy, 1825-1881; Exhibition Catalogues of the Royal Academy, 1840-81.]