John Galt
(1779-1839), NovelistEarly Victorian Portraits Catalogue Entry
Sitter in 3 portraits
A prolific Scottish novelist admired for his depiction of country life. From 1824 he worked for the Canada Company, established to aid the colonisation of Upper Canada. He opened up a road between Lakes Huron and Erie through the forest country and founded the city of Guelph in Upper Canada (now Ontario) in 1827. Galt was dismissed in 1829 for his lack of accounting skills and failure to carry out the company's policies. He returned to Britain in 1829, and devoted himself entirely to literature. His masterpieces, novels of Scottish rural life, are The Ayrshire Legatees (1820), The Annals of the Parish (1821), Sir Andrew Wylie (1822), The Provost (1822) and The Entail (1823).
by William Brockedon
chalk, 1834
NPG 2515(37)
after Daniel Maclise
pen and ink, (published 1830)
NPG D34534
by Robert Graves, after John or James Irvine
line engraving, published 1833
NPG D13822
Comments back to top
We are currently unable to accept new comments, but any past comments are available to read below.
If you need information from us, please use our Archive enquiry service . Please note that we cannot provide valuations. You can buy a print or greeting card of most illustrated portraits. Select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Buy a Print button. Prices start at around £6 for unframed prints, £16 for framed prints. If you wish to license an image, select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Use this image button, or contact our Rights and Images service. We digitise over 8,000 portraits a year and we cannot guarantee being able to digitise images that are not already scheduled.