Henry Raeburn

Sir Henry Raeburn (1756–1823) was Scotland's first major painter to build his career at home rather than fleeing south to London. Born in Edinburgh to a yarn manufacturer, he was orphaned young and raised by his older brother. Apprenticed to a goldsmith at fifteen, he taught himself oil painting while decorating jewelry with portrait miniatures. He never had formal artistic training. A brief visit to London brought him advice from Joshua Reynolds, who urged him to study in Rome. Raeburn spent two years in Italy before returning to Edinburgh in 1787, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Working in the spirit of early Romanticism, Raeburn painted directly onto canvas without preparatory drawings, a technique unusual among his contemporaries. His bold, vigorous brushwork, sometimes called his "square touch," captured Highland chiefs, lawyers, professors, and literary figures of the Scottish Enlightenment with psychological depth and energy. He completed over a thousand portraits in his fifty-year career. Financial troubles led to bankruptcy in 1808, but he recovered. In 1822, during King George IV's celebrated visit to Scotland, Raeburn received a knighthood at Hopetoun House and was appointed His Majesty's Limner for Scotland. He died the following year. His best-known painting today, The Skating Minister (Reverend Robert Walker on Duddingston Loch), was nearly unknown until acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland in 1949. More of his work hangs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and National Gallery in London.