Christina Robertson

Date of birth
1796
Place of birth
Kinghorn, Fife, Scotland
Date of death
1854
Place of death
St Petersburg, Russia
Nationality
Scotland
Biography

BIOGRAPHY

Born in the small town of Kinghorn in 1769, Christina Robertson (nee Saunders) was the first female painter to be elected to the Royal Scottish Academy. Robertson is thought to have been trained by her uncle George Sa(u)nders, a well-known miniaturist. In 1823 she married fellow artist James Robertson, although her artistic success quickly overshadowed his. In the late 1830s Robertson was enticed to travel to St Petersburg where she was commissioned to paint portraits of Tsar Nicholas I and his family. Robertson was an official royal painter from 1839 to 1849 and died in St Petersburg in 1854. A highly accomplished painter, Robertson remains little known internationally due in large part to the fact that most of her work remains in Russia.  


Tansy Curtin, Curator of International Art Pre-1980