William Bonnar, a painter of portraits, history, and genre, was born at Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

 in 1800. His father was a house-painter of considerable skill, and the son, having from his early years evinced a remarkable aptitude for drawing, was apprenticed to one of the leading decorators of the time. When George IV

George IV of the United Kingdom

George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...

 visited Edinburgh in 1822, Bonnar assisted David Roberts

David Roberts (painter)

David Roberts RA was a Scottish painter. He is especially known for a prolific series of detailed lithograph prints of Egypt and the Near East that he produced during the 1840s from sketches he made during long tours of the region . These, and his large oil paintings of similar subjects, made him...

 in decorating the assembly rooms for the grand state ball which
was given in honour of the occasion. Shortly afterwards some signboards painted by him attracted the notice of Captain Basil Hall

Basil Hall

Basil Hall, FRS was a British naval officer from Scotland, a traveller, and an author. He was the second son of Sir James Hall, 4th Baronet, an eminent man of science.-Biography:...

, who sought out and encouraged the young artist. In the year 1824 his picture of 'The Tinkers ' established him as a favourite with the public, and shortly after the formation of the Royal Scottish Academy

Royal Scottish Academy

The Royal Scottish Academy is a Scottish organisation that promotes contemporary Scottish art. Founded in 1826, as the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts, the RSA maintains a unique position in Scotland as an independently funded institution led by eminent artists and...

 (in 1830) he was elected one of the members. Bonnar died at Edinburgh in 1863. He left behind him many fine pictures, several of which have been engraved. In the Edinburgh Gallery

National Gallery of Scotland

The National Gallery of Scotland, in Edinburgh, is the national art gallery of Scotland. An elaborate neoclassical edifice, it stands on The Mound, between the two sections of Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens...

 there are his own Portrait and a Portrait of G. M. Kemp

George Meikle Kemp

George Meikle Kemp was a Scottish carpenter/joiner, draughtsman, and self-taught architect. He is best known as the designer of the Scott Monument in central Edinburgh.-Biography:...

, the Architect of the Scott Monument

Scott Monument

The Scott Monument is a Victorian Gothic monument to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott . It stands in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh, opposite the Jenners department store on Princes Street and near to Edinburgh Waverley Railway Station.The tower is high, and has a series of viewing decks...

, Edinburgh.