Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A. (1756-1823)

The Farmer's Wife: Portrait of Mrs Elizabeth Somerville (1721-1801), three-quarter-length, seated in a black dress and white apron and spotted shawl, her right arm resting on a table, her left hand holding a shell

Details

Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A. (1756-1823)
The Farmer's Wife: Portrait of Mrs Elizabeth Somerville (1721-1801), three-quarter-length, seated in a black dress and white apron and spotted shawl, her right arm resting on a table, her left hand holding a shell
oil on canvas
34 x 27 in. (87.1 x 68.6 cm.)
in an 18th Century Maratta frame

Provenance

By descent in the sitter's family to the Miller family
Stephen Mitchell of Boquhan, Kippen, Stirlingshire (+); Christie's London, 24 November 1933, lot 136 (sold 850 gns.).
Miss Elizabeth Mary Humphreys-Owen.

Literature

Sir James L. Caw, Portraits by Sir Henry Raeburn, Edinburgh, 1909, illustrated pl. 9.
J. Grieg, Sir Henry Raeburn R.A., London, 1911, p. 44.
Dr. D. Mackie, unpublished PhD thesis, Raeburn, Life and Art, A Complete Catalogue of the Artist's Work, Edinburgh, 1993, no. 659.

Exhibited

Stirling, Smith Institute, Stirling Fine Art Association Exhibition, February 1910.
Glasgow, Scottish National Exhibition, 1911.
London, French Gallery, Portraits by British Artists, 1913, no. 36.

Sale room notice

Please note that Raeburn left his wife and family in Edinburgh and travelled to Rome alone in 1784 and not as recorded in the catalogue entry.

Lot Essay

This sensitive early portrait, datable to circa 1788 to 1790, was painted shortly after Raeburn's return from Rome by which time he was already well established as a portrait painter in Edinburgh. Raeburn travelled to Rome with his wife in 1785 and little is recorded of the two years that he spent there.

The sitter, Elizabeth Allan of Allanbank, Lauder, Berwickshire, married James Somerville of Airhouse, Berwickshire, as his second wife, in 1746, and had by him two sons, George (b.1748) and William (b.1750).

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

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