Lady Abercromby

Artist Sir Henry Raeburn (Edinburgh, Scotland, 1756 - 1823)

Associated Lady Abercromby (Aberdeenshire, Scotland, c.1795 - 1863)

Date1816

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: Height: 76.7 cm, Width: 63.8 cm
Frame: Height: 105 cm, Width: 92.3 cm

AcquisitionPresented in 1974 by Lady Abercromby.

CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG003102

Keywords

About MeAs Scotland's leading portrait painter during the later years of the Scottish Enlightenment, Sir Henry Raeburn recorded, with great vivacity, the faces and manners of Edinburgh society. The Enlightenment was a period of tremendous intellectual development and Raeburn's portraits form a dramatic gathering of the people and personalities who lived through this high point in Scotland's cultural history.

This sitter, Elizabeth Stephenson Douglas, married Sir Robert Abercromby in 1816 and it seems highly likely that this portrait was painted to mark the occasion of their marriage. Painted half length to right, full face, the sitter's direct gaze is at once both frank and demure. She wears a white dress, tartan shawl and a heavy gold chain with a large fob or watch which is pinned to her dress. The vivacity of the brushwork which describes the satin of her dress is emblematic of Raeburn's style. What appeared to some contemporaries to be lack of finish was a quite novel freedom of handling.