Sir Jackie Stewart OBE on canvas?
Our next portrait is the Hon. George Baillie of Mellerstain, a painting which recently caught the eye of a tour, as told below by our guide Gill below. Hung in the small library above the fireplace and painted by David Martin around the late-18th century.
It was this George (there are a few in the history of Mellerstain!) that appointed Robert Adam to link the two wings of Mellerstain.
As a young man in the 1740s George Baillie set off on a ‘Grand Tour’ returning to Scotland with enthusiasm for contemporary architectural taste. In 1759 he inherited the Mellerstain estate and in 1770 commissioned Robert Adam.
Our guide Gill tells the story of a case of mistaken identity: “A couple of years ago I was conducting a tour and when we entered the small library three ladies, huddled in a corner, started to laugh. “I waited for them to stop and tried to continue with the tour. However something was clearly tickling them and I invited them to share as everyone was now intrigued.”
One of the ladies asked “Do you know who the man above the fireplace is?” “I said yes and explained about George Baillie, another said, “Are you sure?”, I said yes but they continued to laugh. “So I asked, “who do you think it is?” and unison they replied “Sir Jackie Stewart”.
“I and the assembled group then fell about laughing, because indeed the portrait does look like the three-time Formula One World Champion!”