ABSTRACT
The Scottish history painter William Allan became the first author-approved illustrator of the Waverley novels, with a group of illustrations published in 1820 entitled Illustrations of the Novels and Tales of the Author of Waverley. Scott advanced the careers of several artists during his life, and many more indirectly through the illustration of his novels throughout the nineteenth century, but his sponsorship of Allan was unprecedented. Allan's admiration for exotic costume and armour impresses John Gibson Lockhart's fictional narrator, and no doubt would have impressed Scott also. Allan's illustrations, and his emphasis on costume in denoting the specificity of national and historical character types such as the Covenanters, absorb this desire to present the viewer with a historically authentic representation of how these people looked. Other aspects of Tinto's life point to Allan as the model, including his time as a portrait painter, a trade which Scott felt demeaned his natural talent.
