John Opie

19th Century Oil Painting Portrait of a Muse

circa 1802

Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823) James Sinclair, 12th Earl of Caithness (1766-1823) Oil on Canvas 30 X 25 inches Unframed 37 X 32 inches framed Sir Henry Raeburn FRSE RA RSA (4 March 1756 – 8 July 1823) was a Scottish portrait painter and Scotland's first significant portrait painter since the Union to remain based in Scotland. He served as Portrait Painter to King George IV in Scotland. Raeburn was born the son of a manufacturer in Stockbridge, on the Water of Leith: a former village now within the city of Edinburgh. He had an older brother, born in 1744, called William Raeburn. His ancestors were believed to have been soldiers, and may have taken the name "Raeburn" from a hill farm in Annandale, held by Sir Walter Scott's family. Orphaned, he was supported by William and placed in Heriot's Hospital, where he received an education. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to the goldsmith James Gilliland of Edinburgh, and various pieces of jewellery, mourning rings and the like, adorned with minute drawings on ivory by his hand, still exist. Soon he took to the production of carefully finished portrait miniatures; meeting with success and patronage, he extended his practice to oil painting, at which he was self-taught. Gilliland watched the progress of his pupil with interest, and introduced him to David Martin, who had been the favourite assistant of Allan Ramsay the Latter, and was now the leading portrait painter in Edinburgh. Raeburn was especially aided by the loan of portraits to copy. Soon he had gained sufficient skill to make him decide to devote himself exclusively to painting. George Chalmers (1776; Dunfermline Town Hall) is his earliest known portrait. In his early twenties, Raeburn was asked to paint the portrait of a young lady he had noticed when he was sketching from nature in the fields. Ann was the daughter of Peter Edgar of Bridgelands, and widow of Count James Leslie of Deanhaugh. Fascinated by the handsome and intellectual young artist, she became his wife within a month, bringing him an ample fortune. The acquisition of wealth did not affect his enthusiasm or his industry, but spurred him on to acquire a thorough knowledge of his craft. It was usual for artists to visit Italy, and Raeburn set off with his wife. In London he was kindly received by Sir Joshua Reynolds, the president of the Royal Academy, who advised him on what to study in Rome, especially recommending the works of Michelangelo, and gave Raeburn letters of introduction for Italy. In Rome he met his fellow Scot Gavin Hamilton, Pompeo Girolamo Batoni and Byers, an antique dealer whose advice proved particularly useful, especially the recommendation that "he should never 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, and began a successful career as a portrait painter. In that year he executed a seated portrait of the second Lord President Dundas. Examples of his earlier portraiture include a bust of Mrs Johnstone of Baldovie and a three-quarter-length of Dr James Hutton: works which, if somewhat timid and tentative in handling and not as confident as his later work, nevertheless have delicacy and character. The portraits of John Clerk, Lord Eldin, and of Principal Hill of St Andrews belong to a later period. Raeburn was fortunate in the time in which he practised portraiture. Sir Walter Scott, Hugh Blair, Henry Mackenzie, Lord Woodhouselee, William Robertson, John Home, Robert Fergusson, and Dugald Stewart were resident in Edinburgh, and were all painted by Raeburn. Mature works include his own portrait and that of the Rev. Sir Henry Moncrieff Wellwood, a bust of Dr Wardrop of Torbane Hill, 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. Apart from himself, Raeburn painted only two artists, one of whom was Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey, the most important and famous British sculptor of the first half of the 19th century. It has recently been revealed that Raeburn and Chantrey were close friends and that Raeburn took exceptional care over the execution of his portrait of the sculptor, one of the painter's mature bust-length masterpieces. It was commonly believed that Raeburn was less successful in painting female portraits, but the exquisite full-length of his wife, the smaller likeness of Mrs R. Scott Moncrieff in the National Gallery of Scotland, and that of Mrs Robert Bell, and others, argue against this. Raeburn spent his life in Edinburgh, rarely visiting London, and then only for brief periods, thus preserving his individuality. Although he, personally, may have lost advantages resulting from closer association with the leaders of English art, and from contact with a wider public, Scottish art gained much from his disinclination to leave his native land. He became the acknowledged chief of the school which was growing up in Scotland during the early 19th century, and his example and influence at a critical period were of major importance. So varied were his other interests that sitters used to say of him, "You would never take him for a painter till he seizes the brush and palette." In 1812 he was elected president of the Society of Artists in Edinburgh; and in 1814 associate, and in the following year full member, of the Royal Scottish Academy. On 29 August 1822 he was knighted by George IV and appointed His Majesty's limner for Scotland at the Earl of Hopetoun house. He died in Edinburgh. Raeburn had all the essential qualities of a popular and successful portrait painter. He was able to produce a telling and forcible likeness; his work is distinguished by powerful characterisation, stark realism, dramatic and unusual lighting effects, and swift and broad handling of the most resolute sort. David Wilkie recorded that, while travelling in Spain and studying the works of Diego Velázquez, the brushwork reminded him constantly of the "square touch" of Raeburn. Scottish physician and writer John Brown wrote that Raeburn "never fails in giving a likeness at once vivid, unmistakable and pleasing. He paints the truth, and he paints it with love". Raeburn has been described as a "famously intuitive"portrait painter. He was unusual amongst many of his contemporaries, such as Reynolds, in the extent of his philosophy of painting directly from life; he made no preliminary sketches. This attitude partly explains the often coarse modelling and clashing colour combinations he employed, in contrast to the more refined style of Thomas Gainsborough and Reynolds. However these qualities and those mentioned above anticipate many of the later developments in painting of the 19th century from romanticism to Impressionism. Sir Henry Raeburn died in St Bernard's House (17 St Bernards Crescent), Stockbridge, Edinburgh. He is buried in St. Cuthbert's churchyard against the east wall (the monument erected by Raeburn in advance) but also has a secondary memorial in the Church of St John the Evangelist, Edinburgh. James Sinclair, 12th Earl of Caithness was born at Barrogill Castle (Castle of Mey) on 31 May 1766. He was the son of Sir John Sinclair of Mey, Baronet who he succeeded in the baronetcy in 1774. He succeeded as 12th earl of Caithness in 1789. He was lord-lieutenant of the county of Caithness and lieutenant-colonel of the Ross-shire militia. He married at Thurso Castle on 2 January 1784 Jane, second daughter of Alexander Campbell...

Lady Dormer, Mary Browne c. 1592 oil on panel 35 x 29 inches, unframed; 41 x 34.75 inches, inc. frame Inscribed 'Lady Dormore' Mary married Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton who gave birth to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton - one of the great figures in Shakespears"s circle and founder of the Virginia company, developers of Virginia USA. Henry Wriothesley, born 6 October 1573 at Cowdray House, Sussex, was the only son of Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton, by Mary Browne, the only daughter of Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montague, and his first wife, Jane Radcliffe.[5] He had two sisters, Jane, who died before 1573, and Mary (c. 1567 – 1607), who in June 1585 married Thomas Arundell, 1st Baron Arundell of Wardour.[6] After his father's death, Southampton's mother married firstly, on 2 May 1595, as his second wife, Sir Thomas Heneage (d. 17 October 1595), Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, and secondly, between 5 November 1598 and 31 January 1599, Sir William Hervey. She died in November 1607.[7] Early life When his father died on 4 October 1581 Southampton inherited the earldom and landed income valued at £1097 6s per annum. His wardship and marriage were sold by the Queen to her kinsman, Charles, Lord Howard of Effingham, for £1000. According to Akrigg, Howard then "entered into some further agreement, of which no documentation can now be found, which transferred to Lord Burghley personally the custody and marriage of the young Earl, but left Howard holding his lands", and late in 1581 or early in 1582 Southampton, then eight years of age, came to live at Cecil House in the Strand.[8] In October 1585, at age twelve, Southampton entered St John's College, Cambridge,[9] graduating M.A. on 6 June 1589.[10] His name was entered at the Gray's Inn legal society before he left the university, and he was admitted on 29 February 1588.[11] On Southampton's 16th birthday, 6 October 1589, Lord Burghley noted Southampton's age in his diary, and by 1590 Burghley was negotiating with Southampton's grandfather, Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montague, and Southampton's mother, Mary, for a marriage between Southampton and Lord Burghley's eldest granddaughter, Elizabeth Vere, daughter of Burghley's daughter, Anne Cecil, and Edward de Vere...

Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland (1750-1811) was an English portrait painter and one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768. Justly celebrated in his lifetime he won several...

Attributed to Gainsborough Dupont (1754 - 1797, British) Portrait of Owen Ormsby, bust-length, in a brown coat, with slightly later inscription identifying the sitter oil on canvas 2...

Portrait of a Lady English artist, circa 1870’s oil painting on canvas, framed framed: 36 x 31 inches canvas : 30 x 25 inches provenance: private collection, England condition: over...

Jacob Ferdinand Voet (Antwerp 1639 - Paris 1689) Atelier Portrait of the Young Ortensia Mancini, Duchess of La Meilleraye (Rome 1646 - Chelsea 1699) Oil on canvas 75 x 61 cm. - exquisite gilded and lacquered wooden double frame 105 x 91 cm. The beautiful painting depicting the young and attractive Duchess Ortensia Mancini is part of the refined portraiture of Jacob Ferdinand Voet (Antwerp 1639 - Paris 1689). Of Flemish origin, the painter achieved great success with the aristocratic families of Rome - where he stayed from 1663 to 1679 - thanks to the famous series of portraits commissioned by Cardinal Flavio Chigi, depicting the most enchanting women of the time, and now housed in the Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia. The paintings became so popular that the artist was repeatedly asked to reproduce replicas and similar versions of them: the 'cabinet des dames' was thus one of the Roman fashions of the 17th century, justifying the large number of female portraits attributable to his workshop that gravitated on the market. Voet flaunted in his portraits a peculiar softness and grace in the rendering of the complexions, a subtle voluptuousness in the description of the lips, entrusted to small brushstrokes of red, a sense of calm fixity in the pose, all characteristics that are immediately reflected in the work under examination. Our young effigy, Hortense Mancini...

HUGE OLD MASTER LATE 18th CENTURY CIRCLE of SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS OIL PAINTING Fine OIL PAINTING Old Master 18th Century R.A artist in a Large ...

This lovely British Old Master portrait oil painting is painted in the manner of Sir Henry Raeburn. Painted circa 1800, the sitter is Anne Neale Tucker Lauzun. She was born in St Geo...