Robert Ker Porter. Sir Robert Ker Porter, KCH was a Scottish artist, author, diplomat and traveller.
Known today for his accounts of his travels in Russia, Spain, and Persia, he was one of the earliest panorama painters in Britain, was appointed historical painter to Tsar Alexander I of Russia and served as British consul in Venezuela. Porter was born in Durham in 1777, one of the five children of the Scot William Porter, an army surgeon.
His sisters were the writers Jane Porter and Anna Maria Porter. His father died in 1779, and the following year his mother took him to Edinburgh, although he attended Durham School.
He decided that he wanted to become a painter of battle scenes, and in 1790 his mother took him to see Benjamin West, who thought enough of his sketches to procure him admission as a student at the Royal Academy. In 1792 he received a silver palette from the Society of Arts for a drawing entitled The Witch of Endor.
In 1793 he was commissioned to paint an altarpiece for Shoreditch church; in 1794 he painted Christ allaying the Storm for the Roman Catholic chapel at Portsea, Portsmouth; and in 1798 St. John Preaching for St John's College, Cambridge. In 1800 he obtained work as a scene-painter at the Lyceum Theatre, and in the same year caused a sensation when his Storming of Seringapatam, a panorama 120 feet long, carried round three-quarters of a circle, was exhibited at the Lyceum.
Known today for his accounts of his travels in Russia, Spain, and Persia, he was one of the earliest panorama painters in Britain, was appointed historical painter to Tsar Alexander I of Russia and served as British consul in Venezuela. Porter was born in Durham in 1777, one of the five children of the Scot William Porter, an army surgeon.
His sisters were the writers Jane Porter and Anna Maria Porter. His father died in 1779, and the following year his mother took him to Edinburgh, although he attended Durham School.
He decided that he wanted to become a painter of battle scenes, and in 1790 his mother took him to see Benjamin West, who thought enough of his sketches to procure him admission as a student at the Royal Academy. In 1792 he received a silver palette from the Society of Arts for a drawing entitled The Witch of Endor.
In 1793 he was commissioned to paint an altarpiece for Shoreditch church; in 1794 he painted Christ allaying the Storm for the Roman Catholic chapel at Portsea, Portsmouth; and in 1798 St. John Preaching for St John's College, Cambridge. In 1800 he obtained work as a scene-painter at the Lyceum Theatre, and in the same year caused a sensation when his Storming of Seringapatam, a panorama 120 feet long, carried round three-quarters of a circle, was exhibited at the Lyceum.
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