Mr. Raeburn was elected a Fellow of the Royal So ciety of Edinburgh, and a Member of the Imperial Academy of Florence, of the Academy of New York, and of the Academy of South Carolina. In 1814, when his first picture was sent to the Royal Academy of Lon don, he was elected an Associate, and in the succeeding year he was appointed an Academician. In the year 1822, when king George IV. honoured Scotland with a visit, the dignity of knighthood was without any solicita tion conferred on Mr. Raeburn, as the head of our resi dent school of painting. This honour was conferred upon Sir Henry Raeburn in the great saloon at Hopetoun House, w ith the sword of Sir Alexander Hope, and be fore a large party who had assembled in that magnificent mansion to celebrate the last day of our sovereign's visit to Scotland.
On the occasion of this respect being shown to Sir Henry, the other artists of our metropolis, with a libe rality which did them the highest honour, gave a public dinner to Sir Henry on the 5th of October, for the pur pose of testifying the satisfaction which they felt at the choice made by his Majesty. In the summer of 1823, Sir Henry received the appointment of Portrait Painter to his Majesty for Scotland; but the nomination was not announced to him till the very day on which he was attacked with his last illness.
Sir Henry continued to labour at his profession in the latter part of his life with the same zeal and industry as in his most active years ; and the pictures executed during the last two or three years of his life, some of which we have already enumerated, were equal to any that he ever painted.
The most interesting, however, of Sir Henry's recent works, arc a series of half-length portraits of his literary and scientific friends, which he painted solely for his own private gratification. Among these are the portraits of Sir Walter Scott, Mr. Jeffrey, Mr. F. Horner, the Rev. A. Alison, Dr. Brewster, the Rev. Andrew Thomson, the late Mr. Rennie, Mr. Cockburn, the Rev. J. Thom son, and Mr. H. W. Williams. The portrait of the Rev. Dr. A. Thomson is, in our opinion, the best of this group, and one of the best that he ever painted.
Sir Henry had now reached that period of life when even the most active mind begins to think with some seriousness of the change which awaits it. Though in perfect health, and of a frame which seemed to defy the ordinary contingencies of time and disease, we have often heard him allude to the probability of that change.
In the summer of 1823 he went upon an excursion into Fifeshire with Sir Walter Scott, the Lord Chief Baron Shepherd, William Clerk, Esq. and a small party of friends, under the auspices of Lord Chief Commissioner Adam, (the early and steady friend of Sir Henry Rae burn,) who have for some years paid an annual visit to objects of historical curiosity and interest. On that occasion his health seemed to be eminently vigorous, and he contributed his full share to the hilarity of the party. When he returned to Edinburgh, Sir Walter Scott sat to him for the half-length portrait above men tioned, and for another for Lord Montague. These pictures were the last which he painted ; and in a few days after they were finished, Sir Henry was seized with a general debility, which was not attended with any visible disease. This unexpected attack continued for a week to baffle all the skill of his medical attendants, and carried him off on the 8th July, 1823, in the 68th year of his age.
The loss of this great artist was deeply felt not only by his personal friends, but by the public at large. Those who took a deep interest in the progress of the fine arts in Scotland, saw that the place of Sir Henry Raeburn could not be supplied ; and those who con sidered the art of painting as administering only to their luxury—to the luxury of their vanity or their sorrow— were demi% ed of one of the highest sources of gratifica tion.
The Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland, held a meeting on the 10th of July, at which they passed resolutions of i%gret and con dolence on the loss of their eminent colleague, and par ticularly lamented that the season of the year, and other circumstances, prevented them from requesting permis sion of his family to attend publicly, in a body, his re mains to the grave.
At a meeting of the Royal Academy of London, on the 16th of July, Sir Thomas Lawrence lamented the melancholy task which had devolved upon him, of an nouncing officially to his colleagues the death of one of their most distinguished associates. " He expressed his high admiration for the talents of the deceased, and his unfeigned respect for the high feeling and gentle manlike conduct which had conferred a dignity on him self, and on the art which he professed. His loss, Sir Thomas conceived, had left a blank in the Royal Aca demy, as well as in his own country, which could not be filled up.