Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A. (1745-1806)

Portrait of a Isabella, Lady Blair (d. 1858), seated three-quarter-length, in a white dress, in a wooded landscape

Details

Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A. (1745-1806)
Portrait of a Isabella, Lady Blair (d. 1858), seated three-quarter-length, in a white dress, in a wooded landscape
oil on canvas
35¼ x 27¼ in. (89.5 x 69 cm.)

Provenance

By descent through the sitter's daughter, Cornelia Blair, to Dorothy Blair, the latter's niece, who bequeathed it to Charles Cornelius Maconochie and by descent.
Howard Young Gallery, London and New York, 1930.
F.S. Savastano, New York.
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, New York, 11 April 1984, lot 20.

Lot Essay

This portrait is datable to the mid-1790s. The sitter was the youngest daughter of Colonel Charles Craigie Halkett of Lawhill, Fifeshire, and wife of the Rt. Hon. Robert Blair (d. 1811), Solicitor General for Scotland from 1789 to 1806 and later President of the College of Justice. Raeburn also painted a portrait of her husband, a version of which was offered in these Rooms, 20 April 1990, lot 40 (see Sir W. Armstrong, Sir Henry Raeburn, London, 1901, p. 96).

We are grateful to Dr. David Mackie for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.

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