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John Syme RSA (1795 – 3 August 1861) was a Scottish portrait painter.
A nephew of Patrick Syme, he was born in Edinburgh and studied in the Trustees' Academy on Picardy Place. He became a pupil and assistant of Sir Henry Raeburn, whose unfinished works he completed, and subsequently practised with success as a portrait-painter in Edinburgh.
In the 1830s he is listed as living at 32 Abercromby Place in Edinburgh's Second New Town.[1]
Syme was an original member of the Royal Scottish Academy, founded in 1826, and took an active part in its management. He died in Edinburgh on 3 August 1861.
He painted many portraits. That of John Barclay M.D. was exhibited at the London Royal Academy in 1819, and went to the Scottish National Gallery; it was engraved in mezzotint by Thomas Hodgetts, as were also those of John Broster and Andrew McKean. Syme's self-portrait went to the Royal Scottish Academy. His portrait of the Solicitor General, Lord Cockburn, was deposited with the Academy as his diploma work.[2] A portrait of Alexander Henderson, Lord Provost of Edinburgh 1823-1825 hangs in the Merchant Hall in Edinburgh.
