John Phillip was born in Aberdeen in 1817 and lived at 13 Skene Square. Determined to become a painter he stowed away on a ship to London in 1834 and spent a whole day looking at art in the Royal Academy. He became an extremely successful painter gaining the patronage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. His daughter Anna was born in 1849 and so it is thought this depiction in 1850 of a family baptism taking place in a Highland home reflects the joy of her arrival in Phillip’s life. It is the second in a pair of paintings, the first one being ‘Presbyterian Catechising’ and both works seem to show the same couple at different stages of life with. At least three or four generations of the family are incorporated into this elaborate composition. Although painted in 1850 it is likely the scene is from the time of the Jacobite Risings of 1745. The original was purchased by Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums in 1983.

Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 27

Q74. Are infants also to be be baptised?

Yes, since they, as well as their parents, belong to the covenant and people of God, and both redemption from sin and the Holy Spirit, who creates faith, are through the blood of Christ promised to them no less than to their parents. Therefore, by baptism, as a sign of the covenant, they must be grafted into the Christian Church, and distinguished from the children of unbelievers, as was done in the Old Covenant by circumcision, in place of which in the New Covenant baptism was instituted.