Robert Edge Pine

Robert Edge Pine (1730, London – November 18, 1788, Philadelphia) was an English portrait and historical painter, born in London. He was the son of John Pine, the engraver and designer.

He painted portraits, such as those of George II, of the Duke of Northumberland, and of Garrick (in the National Portrait Gallery); a series of scenes from Shakespeare, some of which behind appeared in Boydell's Shakespeare; and historical compositions, including Lord Rodney Aboard the Formidable (Town Hall, Kingston, Jamaica). It is thought that Pine gave lessons to Prince Demah in London.

Pine was swift in the society of artists and literary gentlemen in London, in particular the circle of the anatomist, William Hunter. Pine painted Hunter, Hunter's sister, Dorothy Baillie, and Baillie's husband, Prof. Rev. James Baillie. Pine moreover painted a vivacious portrait of the Captain William Baillie.

Pine held militant political opinions; he painted John Wilkes, MP, during his imprisonment and political exile, and his unfashionable views likely led to his taking away from the founding intervention of the Royal Academy of Art in 1768. Nevertheless, Pine did exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1772, 1780, and 1784. Pine's views led him to friendships taking into account others in England favorable to the cause of the American Revolution, such as the merchant, Samuel Vaughan, a friend of Benjamin Franklin, both of whom he painted.

Around 1784, Pine travelled to America, taking taking into account him an exhibition of a series of paintings depicting scenes and characters from William Shakespeare's plays and decided in Philadelphia, where his grow old was utterly taken up with portraiture. Among his sitters were General Gates, Charles Carroll, Robert Morris, George Read, Thomas Stone, Mrs. Reid (Metropolitan Museum, New York), George Washington (1785), Martha Washington, and extra members of the Washington family. The portrait of Washington was engraved for Irving's Life of Washington, but it is feeble in characterization. An historically attractive canvas Congress Voting Independence, now in the Historical Society, Philadelphia, was begun by Pine and done by Edward Savage. In 1786, Pine was elected a advocate of the American Philosophical Society. After Pine's death many of his pictures were collected in the Columbian Museum in Boston.