PORTER, Sir Robert Ker, a well-known artist and
traveller, was the brother of the preceding, and was born at Durham in 1780. A determination to be a painter began to characterize him while passing his boyhood in Edinburgh. He persisted in making sketches from his own fancy, until his mother, in 1790, took him up to London and enrolled him among the students of the Royal Academy. A few years only had been spent there when he boldly made his appearance as an artist by profession. Several altar-pieces were painted, and were either sold or presented to several churches. The "Storming of Seringapatam," the "Siege of Acre," and the "Battle of Agincourt," all large pictures, were executed, and London was invited to see them exhibited. No enterprise, in fact, was too great for the youthful aspirant to attempt. Venturing to push his fortune in Russia, he procured the appointment of historical painter to the Czar in 1804, and won the hand of the daughter of Prince Theodore de Sherbatoff in 1811. By this time Porter had begun to enter upon a new and more exciting sphere of action. The winter of 1808-9 saw him sharing in the hardships and glories of the campaign of Sir John Moore. From 1817 to 1820 he was journeying in the East, and with the aid of both pen and pencil recording what he saw in his travels. Between 1826 and 1841 he was residing as British consul at Venezuela in South America. Leave of absence had been obtained, and he was paying a visit to St Petersburg, when a stroke of apoplexy suddenly carried him off in May 1842. Ker Porter, at the time of his death, had gained considerable reputation. The title of Knight Commander of the Order of Hanover, which had been conferred upon him in 1832, shows how much his talents as a warrior and a diplomatist were esteemed. His literary gifts were also well known from the following works:—Travelling Sketches in Russia and Sweden, in 2 vols. 4to, 1808; Letters from Portugal and Spain, 8vo, 1809; Narrative of the late Campaign in Russia, 4to, 1813; and Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia, &c. &c., during the years 1817-20, in 2 vols. 4to, 1821-22.