Sir Alexander Macdonald c1772 - an interesting outfit

[figheadair]

I've been looking at the portrait of Sir Alexander Macdonald, 9th Baronet of Sleat by Sir George Chalmers c1772.



It is interesting for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is, I think, the oldest known example of someone wearing a full outfit (coat, waistcoat and kilt/feileadh beag) in the same tartan. The approximate date places it during the latter part of the Proscription era and some 10 years before the beginnings of the Highland Revival. It could of be that the dating in wrong and the portrait is later.

The coat and waistcoat lack a collar and show stylistic similarities to some of those shown in Morier’s Culloden picture and also that worn in Reynold’s portrait of the Earl of Dunmore. It’s difficult to determine whether the lower garment is a feileadh beag (unsewn) or kilt (sewn-in pleats) but the evident broad box pleats all the way around, including the front, might suggest a sewn garment.

All in all a fascinating portrait.