Description
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
75cm x 62cm (29.5in x 24.5in)
Footnote
Provenance:By descent in the Cunningham Graham family
Exhibited:On extended loan from Lady Patricia Cunningham Graham to Culzean Castle (National Trust for Scotland) 1982-2016
Reference:David Mackie, Raeburn Life and Art (a complete catalogue of the artist's work in 6 volumes) unpublished Ph.d thesis, University of Edinburgh, no. 340B
Note: Robert Cunningham Graham o' Gartmore and Finlayston (1735-1797) was the Receiver General for Jamaica and MP for Stirlingshire from 1794-1796 as well as being Rector of Glasgow University from 1785-7 and a noted poet. The sitter was a supporter of the French Revolution and a leading advocate for political reform.
There is a primary version, near full-length, in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. The portrait on offer is a smaller repetition by Raeburn, showing only the central part of the composition. The primary version of the painting was discussed in a letter of 17 November 1794 from Raeburn to the man who commissioned it, Cunningham Graham's friend, Hugh Innes of Balmacara, Ross-shire. The existence of this part-replica speaks for the success of the portrait with the sitter and his friends. Further evidence for this is suggested by the creation of an enamel copy in miniature of the "A" version by Henry Bone in the collection of the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow.
The primary version came to light when included in the 1939 Exhibition of Scottish Art at the Royal Academy. The version offered here, became known when it was lent by the sitter's family to the National Trust for Scotland in 1982, to be hung at Culzean Castle. Neither work features in the Raeburn literature before Mackie's complete catalogue. The "A" version of the portrait was requested by Baroness Thatcher from the SNPG for display at 10 Downing Street, where it hung during her time as Prime Minister.
The creation of the version offered here may have been occasioned by the sitter's death in 1797. The extensive use of bitumen suggest that it was painted c.1800 when the artist had developed a new and darker style of painting. Raeburn may have used the original version as his model. This version is just over half the size of the primary version and the reduction in scale has caused some essential changes to the composition: the sitter's left arm is lowered out of sight and the book now appears on the table. Studio assistants working for Raeburn at that early date are not known, and although the involvement of assistants in Raeburn's practice is poorly understood, it seems always to have been limited. In the primary version the leading eye of the portrait has a cast and there is also disparity between the two sides of the sitter's face, created by shadow.
Many consider Raeburn's portraits of the 1790s to be his finest. They communicate appearance, character, psychological and emotional state, and mental force. Their skilled and inventive use of pose and lighting give an enduring sense of human presence and human uniqueness.
The portrait offered here has been examined by Dr David Mackie and will be included in his forthcoming complete catalogue of Raeburn.
We would like to acknowledge the assistance of Dr. David Mackie,
St Catharine's College, Cambridge in cataloguing this picture.