Details of Sculptor

Surname

Mackenzie

Alternative Surname

First Name

Samuel RSA

Initial of Surname

M

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

Year of Death

1847

Biographical Details

Although Mackenzie was successful principally as a painter and received academic recognition for his work in that branch of the arts, he began his career as a sculptor. He was born at Kilmuir in 1785, became an orphan at an early age and was brought up by an uncle. As a young man he helped on the farm before spending several years working in the north of Scotland supervising large teams of stonemasons for the engineer Thomas Telford. His son James records that after his father moved to Edinburgh in the early-19th century he worked first for James Dalziel, who taught him to model in clay and carve in marble. This assertion is questionable since Dalziel did not establish a business until 1820 by which year Mackenzie was devoting much of his time to painting. Mackenzie was a close friend of Samuel Joseph during the 1820s and both artists were among the first members of the Scottish Academy. He knew Alexander Handyside Ritchie well and the two men worked together on the monument to David Dickson in Edinburgh, for which Mackenzie modelled the portrait (1). Although he retained his interest in modelling until his death in 1847, from 1810 onwards he worked principally as a painter.
Literary References: Woodward 1977 (vol 1, pt 2), 145-7
Additional Manuscript Sources: Mackenzie Reminiscences