Portraits of ill-fated couple to be auctioned
Paintings of pair drowned in China Sea revealed for first time in 40 years
Published:
TWIN portraits of a Scottish couple who were drowned a year after their 19th-century marriage are to be revealed to the public for the first time in 40 years when they are auctioned at an Edinburgh sale later this week.
The oil paintings feature James Macpherson, born in Inverness in 1794, and his wife Jessy Young, born in Aberdeen in 1807.
James Macpherson was the son of Donald Macpherson, an Inverness merchant. His mother, Barbara, was one of the Mackintoshes of Holm.
Jessy Young was the daughter of James Young, a former lord provost of Aberdeen, who was from a prominent city merchant family.
During his tenure, the town council admitted to civic debts of £6,874. It was later revealed to be in debt to the tune of £120,000 to £140,000.
It is thought the ill-fated couple met in Rotterdam, where Jessy spent most of her childhood. They married in London on September 28, 1838, and later set sail for China.
Their only son was born — presumably on board ship — in September 1839, but the whole family died when the vessel was wrecked in the China Sea the following month.
An essay on the two paintings and the couple’s life and families was published in Scottish Genealogist in December 2004.
The portraits, painted around 1836, have an estimated combined value of £1,000 to £1,500.
Painted by Belgian artist Cornelius Cels, they have been privately owned by James Ruglen for more than 40 years and will be auctioned at the Lyon and Turnbull pictures sale on Thursday.
