H 87.3 cm x W 74.9 cm x D 7.6 cm
A 1/2 length portrait of John S. Skinner. He is facing left, with his left shoulder near the front of the picture plane in the lower right corner, and his right shoulder in the middle background of the composition. The sitter has short brown hair parted in the centre, brown eyebrows and moustache, and grey / hazel eyes. He is represented almost in profile, the left side of his face towards the viewer. The sitter is wearing a dark overcoat or lawyers' robes, and a white collared shirt with a white bowtie. He is wearing a heavy gold chain of office with large medallions of various shapes forming the links. The background is a plain mottled brown-grey-green.
The painting is housed in a late 19th or early 20th century carved wood frame with gilding. Plain wide bevelled back edge, painted/gilt; open oak leaf / vine ovolo top edge; astragal, punched/chiseled frieze, dash and dot bead sight edge.
Born in Kingston and educated locally and in Toronto, John Skinner was a long-time Kingston lawyer. At 17, Skinner joined the 14th Battalion, Princess of Wales’ Own Rifles and served 23 years, including five as lieutenant colonel. After his 1903 retirement from the battalion, Skinner worked for Canadian Pacific Railway in Montreal, married and travelled abroad for his health. The Skinners returned to Kingston in 1923. He died aboard a train three years later.
