Brief Biography-Erskine Nicol was born in Edinburgh in 1825. He studied alongside William Allan at the Edinburgh College of Art before teaching in Ireland between 1845 and 1850. The plight of the Irish people touched him during the famine, and he depicted his images of people in dire distress with sincere authenticity. His painting, An Irish Countryman, exudes the anguish experienced by citizens, particularly in rural areas during the country’s darkest era. Nicol became an academician in 1859 and exhibited at academies in Scotland, Ireland, and England. Ireland was his second base for painting, and he moved from Edinburgh to London in 1862, where he spent his last days. He died in 1904.