Sir Herbert James Gunn was a distinguished Scottish painter known for his transition from landscape art to portraiture and for his influential role in 20th-century British painting. Born in Glasgow to Richard Gunn and Thomasina Munro, he studied at both the Glasgow School of Art and the Edinburgh College of Art before advancing his training in Paris at the Académie Julian under Jean-Paul Laurens. After leaving Paris, Gunn travelled to Spain and later worked in London, focusing initially on landscapes.
When the First World War began, he enlisted in the Artists Rifles and later became an officer in the 10th Scottish Rifles, serving in France, where he met future patron Edward Grindlay. Even during the war, he continued to paint, producing a notable depiction of troops before the Battle of the Somme. In the 1920s Gunn travelled widely and exhibited works such as Paintings of Rome, but gradually shifted toward portraiture, committing to the genre exclusively after 1929.
During the Second World War he lived with his family in Carsethorn and completed several official portrait commissions for the War Artists’ Advisory Committee. His later career was marked by major portraits of British figures, including Queen Elizabeth II, King George V, Harold Macmillan, and members of the royal family. He served as President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters from 1953 until his death and became a Royal Academician in 1961. Knighted in 1963, Gunn married twice and had several children.
Other notable portraits by Gunn include Queen Elizabeth II (Royal Collection, 1953), Harold Macmillan as Chancellor of Oxford University (Balliol College, Oxford, 1962) and a conversation piece of the Royal Family taking tea at the Royal Lodge in Windsor (commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery, 1950).