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Notes
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A half-length portrait, which may be posthumous, in which the seated sitter faces left, looking out to the viewer, wearing a black jacket and waistcoat and a white shirt and neck cloth. Thrown over the arm of the settee behind him is his academic hood as a Doctor of Divinity of Cambridge University, a degree conferred on him by royal mandate in 1806, which was his only reward for his considerable public service. In the left background of this portrait there is a painting on the wall of a ship in a storm, struck by lightning. This refers to an incident off Jamaica in 1802 when Scott was the chaplain of the station flagship 'Leviathan' under Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth, who sent him on a brief mission to San Domingo in the frigate 'Topaze'. While returning the ship was struck and Scott was seriously injured.
When it seemed likely that the Peace of Amiens would be short and Nelson anticipated being appointed to a wartime foreign station, he asked Scott to become his chaplain and secretary for foreign correspondence. He therefore joined Nelson in the 'Victory' during his tenure of Mediterranean command and remained constantly with him from 1803 to Trafalgar in 1805, when he attended the dying admiral. He accompanied Nelson's body back to England and continued to watch over it until the funeral and burial in St Paul's Cathedral on 9th January 1806. Scott remained vicar of Southminster in Essex until his death, initially on a very limited income, but his circumstances improved in 1816 when he was granted the additional living of Catterick in Yorkshire.
Title
The Reverend Doctor Alexander Scott (1768–1840)
Date
1840
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 76 x W 63.5 cm
Accession number
BHC3016
Work type
Painting