Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Martin, David
MARTIN, DAVID (1737–1798), painter and engraver, born in 1737, was son of the parish schoolmaster at Anstruther in Fife. His brother, the Rev. Samuel Martin, D.D., was minister of the parish of Moniaive, co. Fife. He became a pupil of Allan Ramsay the portrait-painter [q. v.], and when quite young accompanied Ramsay to Rome. On his return he became a student at the academy in St. Martin's Lane, where he gained some premiums for drawings from the life. On leaving Ramsay Martin practised both as engraver and portrait-painter. He obtained considerable success in the latter line, and on returning to Scotland in 1775 was appointed principal painter to the Prince of Wales for Scotland. Martin was a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists, and from 1773 to 1775 was the society's treasurer. He contributed portraits or engravings to their exhibitions from 1765 to 1777, and also exhibited portraits at the Free Society of Artists in 1767. On returning to London Martin resided for some years in Dean Street, Soho, and married a lady with some property. On her death, however, he returned to Edinburgh, where he died in 1798; he left no family.
As an engraver Martin produced some good engravings in mezzotint, including portraits of David Hume and Jean Jacques Rousseau, both after Allan Ramsay, L. F. Roubiliac after A. Carpentiers, Rembrandt after himself, and Lady Frances Manners from one of his own paintings. In line he engraved portraits of William Pulteney, earl of Bath, after A. Ramsay, and William Murray, earl of Mansfield, after one of his own portraits : also two landscapes with cattle after A. Cuyp, another after Gaspar Poussin, and six views of scenery near Sheffield. As a painter Martin worked in the style of Ramsay. Some of his portraits were engraved, including those of Benjamin Franklin (aged 60), Henry, earl Bathurst, James Bruce of Kinnaird, Rev. Thomas Henry (now in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery), Dr. Cullen,Dr. Alexander Carlyle [q. v.] (in the possession of Thomas Scott, esq. of Edinburgh), and others.
Martin painted his own portrait for Ramsay; a replica of this is now in the Scottish National Gallery at Edinburgh, and another is in the possession of Thomas Scott, esq. He is said to have given instruction to Sir Henry Raeburn [q. v.], and to have persuaded him to give up miniature-painting for oil-painting.
[Edwards's Anecd. of Painters; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Chaloner Smith's Brit. Mezzo-tinto Portraits; Cat. of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery; Catalogues of the Society of Artists; information from Thomas Scott, esq.]