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Sir Henry Raeburn, RA(British, 1756-1823)A portrait of Mrs. James Smith of Jordanhill painted border, 30 1/4 x 25 1/4in (76.7 x 64.2cm)
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Find your local specialistSir Henry Raeburn, RA (British, 1756-1823)
oil on canvas
painted border, 30 1/4 x 25 1/4in (76.7 x 64.2cm)
Footnotes
The sitter of this portrait is Mary Wilson (1789-1847), daughter of Alexander Wilson, who in 1809 married James Smith of Jordanhill, Glasgow (1782-1867), geologist and man of letters, who also sat to Raeburn (Mackie No.654). They had two sons and seven daughters. The painting is known to the writer only from photographs. It is part of a long line of commissions Raeburn received from this family. The sitter's father-in-law Archibald Smith of Jordanhill sat for several versions of his portrait (see Mackie No.653), that man's father, James Smith of Craigend also sat to Raeburn (Mackie No.657) and there were marriage links with another Glasgow family, McCall of Ibroxhill, who commissioned further portraits from Raeburn (see Mackie No.477). Most of these commissions are from the end of the artist's career.
Before the complete catalogue was finished no one had ever been able to date Raeburn's portraits. Once that became possible the artist's career could be divided into periods and it was suggested that there are four. The first ends ca.1787 on Raeburn's return from Rome and includes the time he spent as an apprentice silversmith and his studies in Italy. The second is the great period of innovation and richly colored portraits ending at the close of the 1790s. The third is the period of the severe style when he produced dark monochromatic portraits, a period which ends ca.1808 when the artist's insurance business went bankrupt. The final period, Raeburn's fully Romantic period, was a time of sustained activity seeing the production of a great many highly inventive portraits carrying powerful emotional charges, such as we find in this work.
Raeburn was influenced throughout his career by the Italian Baroque. His portraits of women from this period often have a breathless, ecstatic air inspired by depictions of martyred saints. This becomes more subdued in portraits afterwards but the most famous examples, both of ca.1814, are "Mrs. Scott Moncrieff" (National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh) and "Mrs. Urquhart" (Art Gallery and Museum, Kelvingrove, Glasgow) (Mackie No.542 and No.724). They have parallels with Mrs. Smith's portrait. Only married women were depicted in this dramatic and sexualized style which glamorizes the sitter. The sitter is often viewed from below, as here and the sitter's features are expanded: notice the size and degree of separation of the eyes and the wide, full lips. The aim is a Romanticized idealization of the sitter and the antidote to this charged sexuality is the presbyterian blacks, browns and greens of the dark clothing.
After Raeburn's bankruptcy he was never again secure in funds. In 1824, the year after his death, an inventory of debts owed to the artist was drawn up (full transcription, Mackie, Complete Catalogue, vol. 1, Document number 21). In the section devoted to debts recovered since the artist's death it gives: "7 November [1823] Smith of Jordanhill £105". We cannot be certain to what this payment relates to but it demonstrates the connection between this sitter's family and the artist until the end of his career.
There are two known versions of this portrait of Mrs. Smith, with the other version held in a private collection.
We would like to thank Dr. David Mackie of Cambridge University for confirming the authenticity of this lot by photograph and for contributing to this catalogue entry.