For several decades, Sir Henry Raeburn occupied an unrivalled position as the leading portrait painter in Scotland, leaving us a remarkable gallery of images of the most notable personalities of his day. Given Raeburn’s status and reputation it is surprising that he and Walter Scott (1771–1832), by far his most famous contemporary, were merely acquaintances. It was only at the very end of Raeburn’s life, when this portrait was painted, that the relationship between the painter and the writer developed into a friendship. Scott was neither an admirer of Raeburn’s work nor an enthusiastic sitter for portraits, commenting on one occasion: ‘Not only myself but my very dog growls when he observes a painter preparing his palette.’ However, Scott was very pleased with this picture and, when it was finished, he told Raeburn that he wished that ‘none but your portraits of me were in existence’.
Raeburn had first painted Scott some fourteen years earlier in 1808 when the writer was beginning to enjoy success as an editor and a poet but before he had published any of the novels for which he is now best known. The earlier portrait is very much the Romantic image of a poet, with the brooding Scott shown outdoors, seated on a ruined wall against a landscape background and a darkening sky. Scott disliked the picture and later complained that Raeburn had ‘made a very chowder-headed person of me’. When Raeburn painted this later portrait in 1822–3, Scott was at the peak of his success. Beginning with the publication of Waverley in 1814, his novels with Scottish historical settings had become immensely popular in Europe and America, establishing his reputation as a major literary figure. By the early 1820s, Scott was not only known as a poet, critic and writer but he was also prominent in public and political life in Scotland. In 1822, shortly before this portrait was painted, he had organised the festivities to welcome King George IV to Scotland, the first visit by a reigning monarch to this country since the time of Charles II in the seventeenth century.
There are no direct references to Scott’s fame or career in this simple image which was not made as a commission but was painted at the artist’s request as part of his own private collection of portraits of celebrated contemporaries. Raeburn usually relied on his energetic brushwork to convey a sense of life in his portraiture. Here, details of the looped chain and the yellow waistcoat with its wonderfully sculptural folds are painted with his characteristic verve. However, our attention quickly focuses on the writer’s face, illuminated against a dark background. This was one of his very last paintings but Raeburn was clearly still at the height of his powers, producing a portrait that is understated in its evocation of genius yet radiating a calm authority. Like Nasmyth’s portrait of Burns, it has now become the iconic image of one of Scotland’s most famous sons.
This text was originally published in 100 Masterpieces: National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2015.