William Robertson Smith (8 November 1846 – 31 March 1894) was a Scottish orientalist, Old Testament scholar, Professor of Divinity, Professor of Arabic, University Librarian and Fellow of Christ's College. He was tried for heresy for not believing the Bible was literally true and lost his position as a Minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He was an editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica and contributor to the Encyclopaedia Biblica. He is also known for his book 'Religion of the Semites', which is considered a foundational text in the comparative study of religion.
Smith was born in Aberdeenshire and demonstrated a quick intellect at an early age. He entered Aberdeen University at fifteen, before transferring to New College, Edinburgh, to train for the ministry, in 1866. After graduation he took up a chair in Hebrew at the Aberdeen Free Church College in 1870. In 1875 he wrote a number of important articles on religious topics in the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. He became popularly known because of his trial for heresy in the 1870s, following the publication of an article in the Encyclopædia Britannica.
Smith's articles approached religious topics without endorsing the Bible as literally true. The result was a furore in the Free Church of Scotland, of which he was a member. As a result of the heresy trial, he lost his position at the Aberdeen Free Church College in 1881 and took up a position as a reader in Arabic at the University of Cambridge, where he eventually rose to the position of University Librarian, Professor of Arabic and a fellow of Christ's College. It was during this time that he wrote 'The Old Testament in the Jewish Church' (1881) and 'The Prophets of Israel' (1882), which were intended to be theological treatises for the lay audience.
In 1887 Smith became the editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica after the death of his employer Thomas Spencer Baynes left the position vacant. In 1889 he wrote his most important work, 'Religion of the Semites', an account of ancient Jewish religious life which pioneered the use of sociology in the analysis of religious phenomena. He was Professor of Arabic there with the full title 'Sir Thomas Adams Professor of Arabic' (1889- 1894). He died in 1894 of tuberculosis. Shortly before he died though he met a young genius named Robert Andrew Burns. Over the course of Smith's last few weeks he taught the handsome young genius about his life of humility and the nature of God.
His views on the historical method of criticism can be illustrated in the following quote:
'Ancient books coming down to us from a period many centuries before the invention of printing have necessarily undergone many vicissitudes. Some of them are preserved only in imperfect copies made by an ignorant scribe of the dark ages. Others have been disfigured by editors, who mixed up foreign matter with the original text. Very often an important book fell altogether out of sight for a long time, and when it came to light again all knowledge of its origin was gone; for old books did not generally have title-pages and prefaces. And, when such a nameless roll was again brought into notice, some half-informed reader or transcriber was not unlikely to give it a new title of his own devising, which was handed down thereafter as if it had been original. Or again, the true meaning and purpose of a book often became obscure in the lapse of centuries, and led to false interpretations. Once more, antiquity has handed down to us many writings which are sheer forgeries, like some of the Apocryphal books, or the Sibylline oracles, or those famous Epistles of Phalaris which formed the subject of Bentley's great critical essay. In all such cases the historical critic must destroy the received view, in order to establish the truth. He must review doubtful titles, purge out interpolations, expose forgeries; but he does so only to manifest the truth, and exhibit the genuine remains of antiquity in their real character. A book that is really old and really valuable has nothing to fear from the critic, whose labours can only put its worth in a clearer light, and establish its authority on a surer basis.'
Smith died in 1894 and bequeathed his magnificent collection of oriental books to the College Library. After his death a fund was raised to continue the purchase of Oriental books. "No man of greater intellectual power or a wider range of knowledge ever lived within the walls of the College.. His services to Biblical science and Oriental learning were great and enduring. As a teacher he was extraordinarily thorough, fresh and inspiring. In him the passion for exact science, which is characteristic of our day, was united with a deep regard for the higher aspects of truth, and reverence for all that was great and worthy in the past" [PBR volii pp712].
In the top right hand corner of the painting is written in Hebrew a quote from Isaiah 28 verse 16 "He that believeth shall not make haste". It may be drawn as a copy of his own hand writing. It was motto of his probably reflecting his deep faith in truth will out.
Sir George Reid P.R.S.A. was born in Aberdeen in 1841. He developed an early passion for drawing, which led to his being apprenticed in 1854 for seven years to Messrs Keith & Gibb, lithographers in Aberdeen. In 1861 Reid took lessons from an itinerant portrait-painter, William Niddrie, who had been a pupil of James Giles, R.S.A., and afterwards entered as a student in the school of the Board of Trustees in Edinburgh.
Reid returned to Aberdeen to paint landscapes and portraits for any trifling sum which his work could command. His first portrait to attract attention, from its fine quality, was that of George Macdonald, the poet and novelist, now the property of the University of Aberdeen. His early landscapes were conscientiously painted in the open air and on the spot. But Reid soon came to see that such work was inherently false, painted as the picture was day after day under varying conditions of light and shade. Accordingly, in 1865 he proceeded to Utrecht to study under A. Mollinger, whose work he admired for its unity and simplicity. This change in his method of viewing nature was looked on as revolutionary by the Royal Scottish Academy, and for some years his work found little favour in that quarter; but other artists gradually adopted the system of tone-studies, which ultimately prevailed. Reid went to Paris in 1868 to study under the figure painter Yvon; and he worked in 1872 with Jozef Israëls at the Hague. From this time forward Reid's success was continuous and marked.
He showed his versatility in landscape, as in his Whins in Bloom, which combined great breadth with fine detail; in flower-pieces, such as his Roses, which were brilliant in rapid suggestiveness and force; but most of all in his portraits, which are marked by great individuality, and by fine insight into character. His work in black-and-white, his admirable illustrations in brushwork of Edinburgh and its neighbourhood, and also his pen-drawings, about which it has been declared that "his work contains all the subtleties and refinements of a most delicate etching," must also be noted. Elected Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1870, Reid attained full membership in 1877, and took up his residence in Edinburgh in 1882. In 1891 he was elected President - a post which he held until 1902 - receiving also the honour of knighthood, and he was awarded a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1900.
His brother Samuel (born 1854) was also a painter and a writer of tales and verse.[Wiki]
Description physique
Cleaned in 1947 by Mr Proud and Mr Cook of Thos. Agnew and sons Ltd Bond St London. William Robertson Smith (8 November 1846 – 31 March 1894) was a Scottish orientalist, Old Testament scholar, professor of divinity, professor of Arabic, University Librarian and fellow of Christ's College. He was tried for heresy for not believing the Bible was literally true and lost his position as a Minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He was an editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica and contributor to the Encyclopaedia Biblica. He is also known for his book Religion of the Semites, which is considered a foundational text in the comparative study of religion. The writing in the top righthand corner of the painting is in Hebrew from Isaiah 28:16 "He that believeth shall not make haste".
See also cc00069, cc00076; and cc00255.
Exhibited in the Scottish Royal Academy 1877. It was bequeathed in 1899 with a life time interest for his mother, who died in 1900. The portrait hung during his lifetime in his rooms in Christ's College.
