In 1834 Scott had his first painting exhibited at
the Royal Scottish Academy. A couple of years later he moved to
London where he worked as an engraver and illustrator. During this
time he made good contacts but his painting attracted only limited
attention. In 1844 he left London for the north of England to take
up an appointment as Head of Newcastle School of Art.
He continued to make visits to London and in 1847 he
met Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Holman Hunt. Scott and
Rosetti became close friends and through Rossetti, Scott was
introduced to other members of the Pre-Raphaelite group. Scott's
own art reflects the Pre-Raphaelite style and values but he
remained on the edges of this circle, apparently at times feeling
himself something of an outsider.
Returning from a tour of Europe in 1854 Scott was invited to
create a series of paintings to decorate Wallington Hall in
Northumberland for Sir Walter Trevalyan. The eight large highly
detailed oil paintings he produced depict the history of the region
and another series for the spandrils of the arches in the hall
illustrate the ballad of Chevy Chase.
It was during work on these paintings that Scott met Alice Boyd
of Penkill Castle, Ayrshire, when she modelled for Grace Darling in the series.
They became very close despite Scott being already married. Alice
invited him to visit Penkill and asked him to paint a mural for the
spiral staircase there. The watercolour sketches Scott
did for the mural are in the collection at the Dick
Institute.
Even after the completion of the Penkill mural in 1869, Scott
continued to stay periodically at the Castle. During these visits
he and Alice would play host to various members of the
Pre-Raphaelite group of artists including Rossetti
and Lawrence Alma Tadema. Later, when his health began to fail
him, Scott moved permanently to Penkill where he worked on his
autobiography. His wife joined him there in 1889 and remained there
until his death the following year.
Scott enjoyed painting and writing at Penkill. He painted a number
of landscapes around the castle grounds and the
surrounding area and some consider him to have been more successful
in these landscape works than he ever was with figure
painting.
His poetry was as important to Scott as his sketching and painting
and he worked on it throughout his life. He published many of his
poems as well as other writings, including several on the subject
of art, amongst them, works entitled British School of Sculpture, Little
Masters of Germany and Life and Work of Albert Durer. An
edition of his "Poems" published in 1875 was illustrated by
himself, with assistance from Lawrence Alma Tadema. They worked
together on these prints during a visit Tadema made to Penkill in
1874. The first proofs of some of these works are in the
collection at the Dick Institute.