John Workman or Warkman (died 1604) was a decorative painter working in Edinburgh.

A family of painters

He was a son of David Workman, who was himself an Edinburgh painter and burgess of the town, and Margaret Schortess. There were several painters of the Workman family in Edinburgh. John Workman provided decorative painting, gilding, and heraldic work. There is no record of him making portraits. John and other members of his family probably painted some of the

Scottish Renaissance painted ceilings Scottish renaissance painted ceilings are decorated ceilings in Scottish houses and castles built between 1540 and 1640. This is a distinctive national style, though there is common ground with similar work elsewhere, especially in France, Spain ...

but documentary evidence is sparse. David Workman painted the "roof of the inner tolbuith of the lordis and above the chymnay thairof" in November 1581 for the town coucil for 24

merks The merk is a long-obsolete Scottish silver coin. Originally the same word as a money mark of silver, the merk was in circulation at the end of the 16th century and in the 17th century. It was originally valued at 13 shillings 4 pence (exactly ...

Royal entry in 1590

Workman's brother James painted a ship, the ''Angel of Kirkcaldy'', which was hired from David Huchesoun to join the convoy bringing Anne of Denmark and James VI back from Denmark in May 1590. He was paid £8 Scots. Painting and decorating the ''James Royall of Ayr'' for the king's outward voyage in 1589 had cost more, and an anonymous painter had received £20. Red and yellow, the Stewart colours, seem to have predominated. Workman and his brother James painted and gilded several items for the

Entry and coronation of Anne of Denmark On 17 May 1590, Anne of Denmark was crowned Queen of Scotland. There was also a ceremony of joyous entry into Edinburgh on 19 May, an opportunity for spectacle and theatre and allegorical tableaux promoting civic and national identities, similar ...

in 1590, including; heraldry for the gates of Edinburgh, imitation stone work in the pends of the gates, decorating the mercat cross, the globe, tabards for actors in the drama, some of them pupils of Edinburgh high school, a bed at the Salt Tron, and a baton and rod for Hercules. The accounts mention "painting the young men". These men escorted the queen on the royal mile in a pageant known as the "convoy of the moors". They wore masks and the skin of their arms and legs was painted to dress them as imagined African people. James Workman's paintwork within the arches or pends of the city gates was called "drawing of alschellar draughtis", the imitation of ashlar stonework.

William Fairlie William Fairlie or Fairley ( fl. 1570–1600) was an Edinburgh merchant and burgess. Fairlie was frequently asked by Edinburgh town ( burgh) council to survey and account for public works for the town council of Edinburgh. He was described as a " ...

paid James Workman to paint the six staffs used to carry the canopy above

Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional fo ...

used during the Entry and Coronation.

Herald painter

In 1592 John Workman was made a herald painter by privy seal letter. He painted items for the funeral of the Bonnie Earl of Moray, but not the famous portrait of the dead earl at Darnaway. In March 1595 he painted a new loft for scholars in

Trinity College Kirk Trinity College Kirk was a royal collegiate church in Edinburgh, Scotland. The kirk and its adjacent almshouse, Trinity Hospital, were founded in 1460 by Mary of Gueldres in memory of her husband, King James II who had been killed at the ...

with sundry colours of oil paints. He decorated a coach used by

when she left for England in 1603 at the

Union of the Crowns The Union of the Crowns ( gd, Aonadh nan Crùintean; sco, Union o the Crouns) was the accession of James VI of Scotland to the throne of the Kingdom of England as James I and the practical unification of some functions (such as overseas dip ...

. John Workman died of plague on 31 October 1604. His will includes a stock of colours for painting, with

orpiment Orpiment is a deep-colored, orange-yellow arsenic sulfide mineral with formula . It is found in volcanic fumaroles, low-temperature hydrothermal veins, and hot springs and is formed both by sublimation and as a byproduct of the decay of another a ...

and azure.Will, NRS CC8/8/41 p. 337.

References

External links

Edinburgh's welcome to Anna of Denmark: William Fairlie's account
{{DEFAULTSORT:Workman, John Scottish interior designers 1604 deaths Artists from Edinburgh 16th-century Scottish painters Scottish male painters 16th-century Scottish businesspeople