An edited volume devoted to the reception and reputation of Edinburgh’s premier Enlightenment portrait painter.

Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823) is especially well known in Scotland as the portrait painter of members of the Scottish Enlightenment. However, outside Scotland, the artist rarely makes more than a fleeting appearance in survey books about portraiture. A review of the most recent exhibition devoted to the artist held in Edinburgh and London during 1997/8, noted that it wears the aspect of a closure rather than a new dawn’ in Raeburn studies, with the painter being shown “in solitary splendour’.

This volume seeks to recover Raeburn from his artistic isolation by looking at his local and international reception and reputation, both in his lifetime and posthumously. It focuses as much on Edinburgh and Scotland as on metropolitan markets and cosmopolitan contexts. Previously unpublished archival material will be brought to light for the first time, especially from the Innes of Stow papers and the archives of the dukes of Hamilton.

Key Features

* 14 chapters each looking at different aspects of Raeburn’s professional career

* International scholars contributing to Raeburn studies for the first time

* Interdisciplinary perspectives setting a new agenda for Raeburn studies

* Traditional art analysis integrated with cultural, social, political and economic history

* Includes much unpublished archival material

KeywordsScotland, Raeburn, Enlightenment, portraiture, art, patronage, taste, collecting