Portrait of Catherine Seyton

Landseer's Portrait of Catherine Seyton appeared as the frontispiece for an edition of Sir Walter Scott's novel The Abbot, first published in 1820. It followed Ivanhoe and The Monastery in the Waverley Series, which for nearly a century were amongst the most popular and widely read novels in Europe. Landseer and Scott became close friends and the author proved a strong influence on the younger artist who illustrated a number of the Waverley novels.
The hero of The Abbot is Roland Graeme, who is found drowning in the loch at Avenel as a child and is taken into the houshold of Sir Halbert and Lady Glendinning. His adventures eventually see him joining the entourage of Mary, Queen of Scots at the Castle of Lochleven where she is imprisoned. Amongst her ladies-in-waiting is the beautiful Catherine Seyton. Their romance forms one of the main subplots of the story, and the pair eventually marry. Here she is shown under house arrest at Lochleven, gazing wistfully out from the ramparts. The rosary is testament to her Catholic faith, something which was to prove an obstacle in her relationship with Roland.
The present work was painted for Robert Vernon, one of Landseer's most important patrons, who commissioned a number of works from the artist, several of which were subsequentally left to the nation. It later formed part of two other notable collections of his work, that of Richard Newsham and Sir John Fowler. Another version of the picture exists, of comparable size, which was sold in these rooms on 25 March 1893 from the collection of S.H. Perks, and again in 1915 from the collection of Jeffrey Whitehead.
We are grateful to Richard Ormond for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.