Nicholas Phillipson on Samuel Swarbreck's Edinburgh

Item No. 18.

View of Edinburgh

Watercolour, dated 1827.

Samuel Swarbreck’s Edinburgh

Despite the fact that he was a London-based painter, Samuel Dukinfield Swarbreck is today most famous for his iconic sketches of Edinburgh; sketches which feature many of the areas and old buildings that still define the Scottish capital to this day. For the Edinburgh-based historian N. T. Phillipson, Swarbreck’s pencil work provided valuable insights into the development of the city in the early 19th century. In a series of historical vignettes, Phillipson commented on several of these Edinburgh sketches for the Scottish Provident Association’s annual publication. A few of these are reproduced below along with Phillipson’s own postcards printed with Swarbreck’s lithographs.