Alex Bannerman

Alex Bannerman was a Scottish politician from Aberdeen whose portrait by Hayter, painted around 1832, is now in the Aberdeen Archives, Gallery and Museums collections. The portrait likely relates to Hayter’s parliamentary documentation project, recording the appearance of a local political figure during the reform era. Aberdeen’s granite city was beginning its transformation into a major industrial center during Bannerman’s political career. George Hayter was the preeminent British history and portrait painter of the early Victorian era, appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary to Queen Victoria in 1841.

Hayter’s Scottish sitter is rendered with the same efficient directness applied to his English subjects, the portrait’s plain background and focused facial modeling typical of the preparatory study format.