Paton was the Scottish artist who came south in 1842 for the RA Schools and a career in painting, after a beginning in fabric design at Paisley. He shows the immediate influence of his mentor John Everett Millais. He returned to Scotland rather than stay in London , his subsequent links with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood being more stylistic than actual. He was devoted to 'fancy' subjects with a preference for Faery and the Genteel Macabre.

I like to think he had a sense of humour, and realised his own visual absurdities. He was too eager to show off how well he could draw from the model. In the Aytoun Book, each page is crammed with archaeological detail to an extent impossible in conventional martial compositions. The sheer number of exploded bagpipes in that book may suggest a puckish humour.

His visualisation after Coleridge in interesting in that he shows his undoubted figure drawing skills but through the lens of the bizarre picture making of David Scott.

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