Among Scotch artists Mr. Daniel Macnee occupies a conspicuous place, while in Glasgow, his adopted city, he stands at the head of his profession. Born in Fintry, in Stirlingshire, he was destined originally for mercantile pursuits, but from an early age he showed an unmistakeable bent for the profession of an artist, and even while at school receiving the rudiments of his education, he used to while away his leisure hours by drawing different subjects, especially portraits, for which he showed a considerable aptitude. About 1820 he was apprenticed to Mr. John Knox, a teacher of drawing, in Glasgow, who was celebrated as a landscape painter, and than whom no one was ever better qualified to teach the principles and practice of art. Associated with Mr. Macnee at this time were Mr. Horatio M'Culloch and other young men who subsequently became artists of eminence, and the lessons imparted by Mr. Knox laid the foundations of the correct taste and careful attention to detail which distinguished all of his more illustrious pupils. After attending Mr. Knox's classes for a period of four years, Mr. Macnee proceeded to Edinburgh and entered himself as a pupil under Sir William Allan, who was at that time head of an institution termed the Honourable Board of Trustees for Manufactures in Scotland, which was established in terms of an Act of Parliament passed at the time of the Union, towards "encouraging and promoting the fisheries and such other manufactures and improvements in Scotland as may conduce to the general good of the United Kingdom." The funds set apart for the maintainance of this Institution amounted to £2000 a year, and in carrying out the purposes of the Act, the Trustees, originally twenty-one in number, offered premiums for the best designs or drawings of patterns for the improvement of manufactures. In 1760 a master was permanently appointed to instruct the youth of both sexes in drawing, thus laying the foundation of the School of Design, which existed and prospered under the management of the Board for more than a century afterwards. The main reason for the establishment of this Board was a fear on the part of the promoters that by the Act of Union the manufactures and arts of Scotland would be transferred to England, and thus be prejudiced to a very considerable extent. Sir William Allan was an artist of great power and varied experience. Mr. Thomas Duncan, who afterwards became an Associate of the Royal Academy, and produced a number of high-class pictures, with which all lovers of art are familiar, was one of Sir W. Allan's pupils, contemporaneously with Mr. Macnee, and from this coincidence, a friendship, which was life-long and intimate, sprang up between them, but it was unhappily severed by the early death of Duncan. Sir David Wilkie, Sir William Allan, Sir John Watson Gordon, Burnet, the engraver and painter, Lizars, the Lauders, the Faeds, and other painters of note, were students in the Trustees' Academy. It may be remarked in passing, that this Board is still in existence, but instead of being controlled, as originally intended, by a certain number of trustees, it is under the management of the Department of Science and Arts at South Kensington. Mr. Macnee's studies at this time were various, but they principally took the shape of drawings from the antique statues. When he first went to Edinburgh, Mr. Macnee became connected with Mr. Lizars, the eminent engraver, by whom he was employed in executing anatomical drawings, colouring engravings, and other cognate works, which greatly tended to amplify his experience, and through Mr. Lizars he obtained numerous commissions from lithographers in Edinburgh, which brought him in emoluments of considerable value. Having completed his studies under Sir W. Allan, Mr. Macnee set up in Edinburgh as a professional artist on his own account, and for several years he continued to paint portraits and finished sketches from ordinary life. He returned to Glasgow in the year 1832, since which he has resided, except at rare intervals, in the Metropolis of the West. For a number of years subsequent to his taking up his residence here, he was largely employed in executing crayon portraits, and he was a large exhibitor at most of the Art Exhibitions in Edinburgh, London, Glasgow, and elsewhere. Indeed, it is perhaps not too much to say that Mr. Macnee has exhibited more pictures in the Royal Scottish Academy than any other living artist.

The first pictures exhibited by Mr. Macnee in the Royal Academy of London were portraits of Sir Charles, afterwards Lord Hardinge, and General Messurier, hereditary Governor of Guernsey. The latter picture was executed for the States' Hall, in Guernsey, where it is still exhibited. In 1855 he showed a portrait of Dr. Wardlaw in the French Exhibition at Paris, and for which he was awarded a gold medal, being one of three medals that were then secured by Scotch artists. The other two fell to Sir John Watson Gordon, and Mr. Hamilton, the architect of the High School of Edinburgh, respectively. Among other notable pictures executed by Mr. Macnee we may mention his portrait of Lord Brougham, which is now in the Parliament House, Edinburgh, and for which his lordship sat only a few years before his death. Before being hung in the Parliament House, this picture was exhibited in the Royal Academy of London, and attracted a considerable amount of attention. A portrait of Viscount Lord Melville, which he executed for the Archers' Hall, and another picture of Lord Belhaven, painted for the County Hall, in Lanark, are also considered two of his most excellent works. Since the death of Mr. Graham Gilbert, Mr. Macnee has been without a rival in the West of Scotland, and there are not more than one or two artists in Edinburgh who have any pretensions to compete with him as a portrait painter. In the painting of presentation portraits, Mr. Macnee's services are largely called into requisition, both in London, where he has been accustomed to spend three months during each summer for a number of years past, and in the West of Scotland. Among his earliest and most attached friends were Horatio M'Culloch, and Mr. L. Leitch, also a Glasgow artist, and, perhaps, the most accomplished water-colour painter of the day. It was Mr. Leitch who instructed Her Majesty in this department of art, and he has been largely employed by the nobility both of Scotland and of England, in imparting instruction in this study.

The Royal Scottish Academy, of which Mr. Daniel Macnee has for many years been a prominent member, was established forty-five years ago. Previous to that date an organisation, named the "Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts," founded on the 1st of February, 1819, on the principle of the British Institution of London, was carried on for the purpose of having annual exhibitions of pictures by the old masters, as well as the works of living artists. This association consisted of noblemen and gentlemen, who, by the payment of £50, became shareholders or life members. By its constitution "no artist was capable of being elected on any committee, or of voting as a governor, while he continued a professional artist." This and the superscilious treatment which they received in other respects caused great discontent among the artists who were associate members. In the nature of things such a disagreeable relationship could not last, and, consequently, in the year 1826, several of the associates, disgusted with the treatment to which they were subjected, commenced making arrangements to found a Scottish Academy. A document was handed round containing the proposal to found this Academy, which, when published, had twenty-four names attached to it, viz., thirteen academicians, nine associates, and two associate engravers, the original number of the Academy's members. Mr. Macnee was not one of the original promoters of the Academy but some of his works were shown at their first exhibition, which took place in February, 1827. This opening exhibition was not so successful as might have been expected. The Academy had to compete with the Royal Institution already alluded to, which had many things in its favour, and was backed by the influence of a large number of the nobility, from the King downwards. The second exhibition, however, was more successful, and for the third exhibition such energetic efforts were put forth that the Royal Institution was fairly driven from the field. Ultimately, under the award of Lord Cockburn and Mr. John Hope, afterwards Lord Justice-Clerk, the two institutions amalgamated under the name of the Royal Scottish Academy. It is one of the standing rules of the Academy that the members shall not number more than thirty-nine, and those artists who are ultimately admitted to membership are obliged to graduate as associates for some time previously. Mr. Daniel Macnee and his friend Duncan were exceptions to this rule. They were admitted at once as full members without any previous association, an honour which was due to the great promise they exhibited in their earlier career, and which both have amply fulfilled in their maturer years. There are thirty members and twenty associates of the Royal Scottish Academy.

Having said so much as to Mr. Macnee's professional career and abilities, it would be doing him scant justice were we not to allude to his excellent social qualities. Full of animal spirits and humour, he is one of the favoured few who have been described by De Quincey as drawing the double prize of a fine intellect and a healthy stomach, and having none of what Burke has called "the master vice Sloth" about him, he gets through an enormous amount of work, while he cultivates the social amenities of life to the fullest possible extent. "Dan" Macnee is a universal favourite. No dinner party in the upper circles of Glasgow society is fully complete without him; and no one ever met him for the first time without forming the impression that he was a "jolly good fellow"—an impression which is strengthened by a more matured acquaintance. He is one of the most amiable of men, having a benignant smile and a kindly word for everybody, and many of the most entertaining post-prandial jokes and stories are fathered upon him, sometimes justly and at other times wrongly, simply because he is known by all diners-out to excel in this form of entertainment. In short, Mr. Macnee is exactly what Carlyle described Sir William Hamilton to be, "finely social and human," and wherever he may chance to meet with company he leaves behind him a pleasant memory.