Sir Henry Raeburn
(British, 1756–1823)
Place ActiveEdinburgh, Scotland, Europe
SchoolScottish
BiographyBorn at Stockbridge, now a part of Edinburgh, Raeburn received his earliest training as a goldsmith’s apprentice and may have gotten his start as a draftsman producing miniatures for the jeweler’s lockets. By the age of twenty he had painted his first full-length portrait in oils, but little is known about this early period of his career. His marriage around 1780 made him financially independent. In 1784 Raeburn spent two months in Joshua Reynolds’ studio in London and then, on the master’s advice, traveled to Rome to broaden his experience. He returned to Edinburgh in 1786 and soon earned a reputation as the foremost Scottish portrait painter. The Royal Academy elected Raeburn to membership in 1815, and in 1822 he was knighted by George IV and named His Majesty's Limner for Scotland.Source: Art in The Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.
