Lowe, T. (McKechnie Section 1)

Recorded by Jackson (Dictionary). An artist named Lowe was working with Percival (q.v.) for some years during the 1820s, first as assistant in what appears to have been a large travelling gallery managed by Percival, which traversed Scotland and Ireland as well as England. The travels of this gallery seem to have ended in c. 1830. There is in my collection a silhouette (illustrated) by a 'Mr. Lowe', dated 1 March 1831 and taken at Newcastle-on-Tyne. This may well have been taken by the same artist, working under his own name after the gallery had disbanded. He may have been the T. Lowe (fl. 1838-45) recorded by Foskett as exhibiting at the Royal Academy, from a London address, in 1845. Miniatures were certainly offered by Percival's gallery. If the subject of this entry was indeed T. Lowe, it may have been he who painted in colour a miniature on porcelain, 9 in. high and signed on the back 'Painted by T. Lowe, 1838', which was recorded by Long. See the entry on Percival for details of Lowe's presumed association with his gallery.

The illustrated silhouette is of a John Crawford, is rather large, and is painted, not very expertly, in gum arabic against a dark-grey paper. The shirt-frill and cravat are shown in thinned pigment, applied with indifferent brushwork. Hair is added outside the cut paper outline. The inscription on the reverse reads: 'Taken by Mr. Lowe/Newcastle-on-Tyne/ 1st. March, 1831.'

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