Henry Raeburn

Sir Henry Raeburn ( born March 4, 1756 in Stockbridge, near Edinburgh, † July 8, 1823 ) was a Scottish portrait painter of the Romantic period. Raeburn is considered alongside Sir David Wilkie as the founder of the Scottish school of painting.

Life

Henry Raeburn studied at George Heriot 's School in Edinburgh, founded in 1628 by the royal goldsmith George Heriot. At the age of 15 years he was trained as a goldsmith, soon turned to engraving works and thereafter became the most important portrait painter in Edinburgh.

With twenty-four Henry Raeburn married the rich and eleven years older widow of Count Leslie, Ann Edgar. Your financial resources allowed him in London ( 1784) to study under Sir Joshua Reynolds, the leading portraitist of his time, and a two-year stay in Rome 1784-1786. The trip was artistically important, and the influence of the works of Pompeo Batoni, Gavin Hamilton and Giovanni Romanelli still had an impact in much later portraits. In particular, the observation of the effect of light fascinated Raeburn.

Sir Henry Raeburn, who was appointed in 1822 defeated by King George IV knighted for "Painter to His Majesty in Scotland " (His Majesty's Limner for Scotland ), had a lifelong ambivalent relationship with England. In 1810 he considered moving to London to then but to stay in Edinburgh. He regularly sent his works to the Royal Academy of Arts, where he also full Academician in 1815.