1 / 1

download image
This image is in the public domain. You can copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes. Learn more about our image policies.

Shown from the hips up, a pale-skinned woman wearing white sits facing us against a golden-toned landscape background in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s body is angled to our left, but she looks at us steadily from the corners of her large eyes. The slate-blue irises have some touches of hazel. Her cheeks are tinged with pink, she has a long nose, and her full pink lips are closed. Her ash-brown hair is pulled loosely back and falls in curls around her heart-shaped face. A translucent white ruffle flares around the neckline of her opal-white, long-sleeved dress. The bodice wraps across the front to a bow at her lower back. The landscape immediately behind her is loosely painted with gold and mustard yellow. Mountains in the deep distance along the horizon are painted broadly with smoky blue and purple. A band of plum-purple clouds stretches across the top of the painting in front of higher, pale yellow and blue clouds.

Sir Henry Raeburn

Miss Eleanor Urquhart, c. 1793

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 75 x 62 cm (29 1/2 x 24 7/16 in.)

framed: 101.6 x 90.2 x 12.7 cm (40 x 35 1/2 x 5 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1937.1.101

Artists / Makers

Sir Henry Raeburn (artist) Scottish, 1756 - 1823

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Provenance

Painted for the sitter's father,[1] William Urquhart, 2nd Laird of Craigston, Craigston Castle, Turriff, Aberdeenshire [Scotland]; by descent to Captain Michael Bruce Pollard-Urquhart [1879-1940], Craigston Castle and Castle Pollard; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 20 December 1918, no. 144); bought by (Arthur J. Sulley & Co., London). (M. Knoedler & Co., London), probably from whose New York branch it was purchased 5 October 1920 by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] Painting executed c. 1793; receipt dated January 1794.

Associated Names

Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
Knoedler & Company, M.
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Mellon, Andrew W.
Pollard-Urquhart, 8th Laird of Craigston, Michael Bruce, Captain
Sulley & Co., Arthur J.
Urquhart, 2nd Laird of Craigston, William

Technical Summary

The coarse, heavyweight canvas is twill woven; it has been lined. The ground is white or off-white, evenly applied and of moderate thickness. The painting is executed boldly and spontaneously, using a wide brush; the paint layers are thin and sketchy, leaving the weave of the canvas clearly visible, and only the sitter's head is brought to a higher finish. The painting is in excellent condition. Retouching is minimal. The synthetic varnish applied in 1980 has not discolored.

Bibliography

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 160, no. 101.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 241, repro. 16.

1944: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 136, color repro.

1949: Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 117, repro.

1960: Cooke, Hereward Lester. British Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Eight in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 20, color repro.

1960: The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 24.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 224, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 106.

1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:360, color repro.

1966: Harris, Rose. Sir Henry Raeburn. The Masters series, no. 46. Paulton, near Bristol, 1966:5, 7, color pl. 6.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 94, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 276, repro.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 517, 367, color repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 366, no. 515, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 321, repro.

1991: Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 60, 67, color repro.

1992: Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 196-199, color repro. 198.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 277, no. 224, color repro.