RAEB{JRN, SIR HENRY (1756-1823), Scottish portrait painter, was born at Stockbridge, on March 4, 1756, the son of a manufacturer of the city. He was educated at Heriot's hospital, and at 15 was apprenticed to a goldsmith in Edinburgh. He began to paint miniatures; and, meeting with success and patronage, he extended his practice to oil-painting, being all the while quite self-taught. The goldsmith his master watched his pupil with interest, and introduced him to David Martin, the leading portrait-painter in Edinburgh. From him Raeburn received considerable assistance, and was given por traits to copy. When he was in his 22nd year he was asked to paint the daughter of Peter Edgar of Bridgelands and widow of Count Leslie. A month later she became his wife, bringing him an ample fortune; but the acquisition of wealth affected neither his enthusiasm nor his industry. He decided to visit Italy with his wife, and, in London, called upon and was kindly received by Sir Joshua Reynolds, who gave him excellent advice as to his study in Rome, commending to him in particular the works of Michel angelo. He also offered him more substantial pecuniary aid, which was declined as unneeded; but Raeburn carried with him to Italy many valuable introductions from the president of the Academy. In Rome he made the acquaintance of Gavin Hamilton, of Batoni, and of Byers, who advised him "never to copy an object from memory, but, from the principal figure to the minutest accessory, have it placed before him." After two years of study in Italy he returned to Edinburgh in 1787, where he began a most successful career as a portrait-painter. In that year he executed an admirable seated portrait of the second Lord President Dundas.
Interesting examples of his earlier portraits are those of Mrs. Johnstone of Baldovie and the three-quarter-length of Dr. James Hutton. The portraits of John Clerk, Lord Eldin, and of Principal Hill of St. Andrews belong to a somewhat later period. Raeburn was fortunate in the time in which he practised portraiture. Sir Walter Scott, Blair, Mackenzie, Woodhouselee, Robertson, Home, Ferguson and Dugald Stewart were resident in Edinburgh, and they all, along with a host of others less celebrated, honoured the painter's canvases. Of his fully matured manner the finest examples are his own portrait and that of the Rev. Sir Henry Moncrieff Wellwood, the bust of Dr. Wardrop of Torbane Hill, the two full-lengths of Adam Rolland of Gask, the remarkable paintings of Lord Newton and Dr. Alexander Adam in the National gallery of Scotland, and that of William Macdonald of St. Martin's Raeburn was considered less successful in his
female than in his male portraits, but the exquisite full-length of his wife, the smaller likeness of Mrs. R Scott Moncrieff in the Scottish National Gallery, and that of Mrs. Robert Bell, prove that he could portray all the grace and beauty of the gentler sex.
Raeburn spent his life in Edinburgh, rarely visiting the metrop olis, and then only for brief periods, thus preserving his own sturdy individuality. But though he, personally, may have lost some of the advantages which might have resulted from closer association with the leaders of English art, and from contact with a wider public, Scottish art certainly gained much from his dis inclination to leave his native land. He became the acknowledged chief of the school which was growing up in Scotland during the earlier years of the 19th century, and to his example and influence at a critical period is undoubtedly due much of the virility of his followers and immediate successors. Professional honours fell thick upon him. In 1812 he was elected president of the Society of Attists in Edinburgh, in 1814 associate, and in the following year full member of the Royal Academy. In 1822 he was knighted by George IV and appointed His Majesty's limner for Scotland. He died at Edinburgh on the 8th of July 1823.
In his own day the portraits of Raeburn were excellently engraved by the last members of the great school of English mezzotint. In 1876 a collection of over 300 of his works was brought together 'in the Royal Scottish Academy galleries; in the following year a series of twelve of his finest portraits was included in the winter exhibition of the Royal Academy, London; and a volume of photographs from his paintings was edited by Dr. John Brown.
See Life of Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A , by his great-grandson William Raeburn Andrew (2nd ed., 1894), with complete catalogue of the exhibition of 1876; Works of Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A., with tributes by Dr. John Brown and others (Andrew Elliot, Edinburgh) ; Tribute to the Memory of Raeburn by Dr. Andrew Duncan; the Catalogues of the loan exhibitions in Edinburgh of 5884 and 19o1 ; • and the Essay by W. E. Henley—Sir Henry Raeburn (189o) with a finely produced series of plates, printed by T. & A. (Constable) ; Sir Henry Raeburn by Sir Walter Armstrong, with an introduction by R. A. M. Stevenson and a biographical and descriptive catalogue by J L. Caw (i9oi).