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John Christian Schetky

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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JOHN CHRISTIAN SCHETKY (1778-1874), Scottish marine painter, descended from an old Transylvanian family, was born in Edinburgh on the IIth of August 1778. He studied art under Alexander Nasmyth, and after having travelled on the continent he settled in Oxford, and taught for six years as a drawingmaster. In 1808 he obtained a post in the military college, Great Marlow, and three years later he was appointed professor of drawing in the naval college, Portsmouth, where he had ample opportunities for the study of his favourite marine subjects. From 1836 to 1855 he held a similar professorship in the military college, Addiscombe. To the Royal Academy exhibitions he contributed at intervals from 1805 to 1872, and he was represented at the Westminster Hall competition of 1847 by a large oilpainting of the Battle of La Hogue. He was marine painter to George IV., William IV. and Queen Victoria. Among his published works are the illustrations to Lord John Manners's Cruise in Scotch Waters, and a volume of photographs from his pictures and drawings issued in 1867 under the title of Veterans of the Sea. One of his best works, the "Loss of the Royal George," painted in 1840, is in the National Gallery, London, and the United Service Club possesses another important marine subject from his brush. He died in London on the 28th of January 1874. A memoir by his daughter was published in 1877.

His younger brother, John Alexander Schetky (1785-1824), studied medicine in Edinburgh university and drawing in the Trustees' Academy. As a military surgeon he served with distinction under Lord Beresford in Portugal. He contributed excellent works to the exhibitions of the Royal Academy and of the Water-Colour Society, and executed some of the illustrations in Sir W. Scott's Provincial Antiquities. He died at Cape Coast Castle on the 5th of September 1824, when preparing to follow Mungo Park's route of exploration.