Featured to the right is a portrait of John Hutchison (1833–1910), a distinguished Scottish sculptor who, like the architect Robert Rowand Anderson (1834–1921), studied for some time under Silvermills-born Robert Scott Lauder (1803–69).
Hutchison's 'Youth Bearing the Torch of Learning' can just about be seen in the photo below, taken yesterday from the rooftop terrace of the National Museum of Scotland.
It stands in the distance above the Old College Dome, designed in 1879 by Rowand Anderson.
Rowand Anderson was for some years a resident of Dundonald Street, and responsible for (among many other projects) the Catholic Apostolic Church on Mansfield Place (foot of page), the rubble tenements 'with rogue Gothic detail' at 36–8 and 46 Balfour Street, and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery on Queen Street. On the latter, Hutchison's statue of Knox adorns the western side of the front elevation.
Robert Rowand Anderson and Robert Scott Lauder are both buried in Warriston Cemetery, where the latter's gravestone – erected by former students at the School of Design in grateful remembrance of his 'unfailing sympathy' and 'able guidance' as a master – features a bas-relief portrait of him ... by John Hutchison. It is a replacement, the first having cracked shortly after installation.
The portrait at the top of this page was by Hutchison's fellow student under Robert Scott Lauder: George Paul Chalmers. Chalmers came to a mysterious and bloody end in 1878 in a case which highlighted widespread contemporary dissatisfaction with the competence and energy of the Edinburgh Police. You can read about it here in the brief but brilliant Penny Newsman.
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