Click the tartan to view its entry in The Scottish Registers of Tartans which includes registration details, restrictions, and registrant information.
Unregistered tartans may link to one of the web's online design environments for similar information.
For any questions about reproduction of designs or weaving of these tartans, please contact the registrant directly or via this website.
Museum Portrait Day
Lord Mungo Murray (1668–1700), Son of 1st Marquess of Atholl, by John Michael Wright (1617–1694)
~ National Galleries of Scotland, in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Museum-goers! There are many rare and unique tartans to spot should you be strolling the galleries! The existence and designs of many tartans are known only from extant portraits or paintings such as this one, derived from a study by Alasdair MacLeod of Edinburgh in 1994 showing a complex pattern of red, yellow, and green. This portrait is thought to be the earliest major painting to depict a sitter in full-length in Highland dress! The portrait's subject, Mungo Murray, aged about 15, is dressed for hunting in a féileadh-mór (belted plaid - a double width of tartan about five metres long, belted around the body to form a kilt and cloak). This traditional highland costume is worn with a fashionable wool doublet embroidered with silver and silver-gilt threads. He holds a flintlock sporting gun and carries two pistols in his belt. He also has a dirk and a ribbon basket sword. His servant, in the background, carries a longbow, used for hunting deer. Mungo Murray was involved in military expeditions in the north of Scotland in the 1680s and 1690s. Spurned in love, he set sail in 1699 for New Caledonia (in present-day Panama) as part of the ill-fated Darien scheme by the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies. Shortly after his arrival in early 1700, Murray, aged just 32, was killed by Spanish forces who had laid claim to the territory. 🖌️ 🎨
This tartan comes from the portrait Lord Mungo Murray (1668–1700), Son of 1st Marquess of Atholl by John Michael Wright (1617–1694) from the National Galleries of Scotland, Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Lord Mungo is dressed for hunting. He wears a belted plaid - a double width of tartan about five metres
At least two other versions of this portrait are known, one by Wright.
The tartan pattern was derived from a study by Alasdair MacLeod of Edinburgh in 1994.
Art Notes:
This important Scottish portrait by John MichaelWright is thought to be the earliest major painting to depict a sitter full-length in Highland dress.
The subject is Lord Mungo Murray (1668-1700), fifth son of John Murray, 2nd Earl of Atholl, and Lady Amelia Sophia Stanley, daughter of the 7th Earl of Derby. Mungo Murray was involved in military expeditions in the north of Scotland in the 1680s and 1690s. Spurned in love, he set sail in 1699 for New Caledonia (in present-day Panama) as part of the ill-fated Darien scheme by the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies. Shortly after his arrival in early 1700, Murray, aged just 32, was killed by Spanish forces who had laid claim to the territory.
Michael Wright was born in London, but from 1636 spent five formative years in Scotland apprenticed to the eminent portraitist George Jamesone. In the 1640s he travelled to Rome, where he established himself as a painter, antiquarian, collector and dealer. In 1656 he returned to England, where he received several royal commissions from both Charles II and James II.
Wright’s portrait of Murray was painted in Ireland, where, as a Roman Catholic, the artist had travelled to escape persecution in London. It is thought to have been a companion picture to Wright’s painting Sir Neil O’Neill as an Irish Chieftain, now in the Tate collection, London.
Wright shows Murray, aged about 15, dressed for hunting in a féileadh-mór (a precursor to the kilt), woven with a subtle red, yellow and green sett. On his upper body he is clothed in a wool doublet embroidered with silver and silver-gilt threads, demonstrating his wealth, status and nationality as an aristocratic Highland Scot. In his right hand he holds a Scottish long gun made for hunting, while a sword and dagger hang below his waist.
This portrait was probably commissioned by 2nd Duke of Ormonde; Henry, 7th Duke of Newcastle, and by inheritance to the Earl of Lincoln.
For a detailed description, click the portrait!