An admirable example of the artist's mature style, and one of his most
charming portraits of women. (See p. 79.)
[Illustration: Plate VII.]
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In pictures painted but little later than these, one finds a marked
tendency to revert to the more abbreviated modelling and broader
execution which have been noted as characteristic of his pre-Roman
style. The execution, however, is now much more confident and
masterly, the draughtsmanship better, the design, while exceedingly
simple, less stiff and more closely knit. Using pigment of very fluid
consistency and never loading the lights, though following the
traditional method of thick in the lights and thin in the shadows, his
handling is exceedingly direct and spontaneous, his touch fearless and
broad yet thoroughly under control, his drawing summary yet selective
and so expressive that, even in faces where the lighting is so broad
that there is little shadow to mark the features and little modelling
to explain the planes, the large structure of the head and the
essentials of likeness are rendered in a very satisfying and convincing
way. His colour, however, if losing the inclination to the rather dull
grey-greenness which had prevailed before 1785, remained somewhat cold
and wanting in quality, and the more forcible tints introduced in the
draperies were frequently lacking in modulation and were not quite in
harmony with the prevailing tone. Something of this deficiency in
fusion is also noticeable in his flesh tints, the carnations of the
complexions being somewhat detached owing to defective gradation where
the pinks join the whites. As experience came, Raeburn advanced from
the somewhat starved quality of pigment, which in his earlier pictures
was accentuated by his broad manner of handling, until in many of the
pictures painted during the later nineties he attained extraordinary
{63} power of expression by vigorous and incisive use of square
brush-work and full yet fluid and unloaded impasto. This method with
its sharply struck touches and simplified planes reaches its climax
perhaps in the striking portrait (1798 circa) of Professor Robison in
white night-cap and red-striped dressing-gown, though the more fused
manner of "Mrs Campbell of Balliemore" (1795) and the extraordinary
trenchant handling of the "John Tait of Harvieston and his grandson"
(1798-9) show modifications which are as fine and perhaps less
mannered. Even earlier he sometimes attained a solidity and
forcefulness of effect, a fullness of colour, and a resonance of tone
which gave foretaste of the accomplishment of his full maturity.
Curiously this is most marked in two or three full-lengths. The
earliest of these was the famous "Dr Nathaniel Spens" in the possession
of the Royal Company of Archers, by which body it was commissioned in
1791. In it close realisation of detail and restraint in handling are
very happily harmonised with breadth of ensemble and effectiveness of
design. Some five years later this fine achievement was followed by
the even more striking, if rather less dignified, "Sir John Sinclair,"
a splendid piece of virtuosity, which unites brilliant colour and
admirable tone to great dash and bravura of brush-work.
During this period, and indeed throughout his career, Raeburn usually
placed his sitters in a strong direct light, which, being thrown upon
the head and upper part of the figure (from a high side-light)
illumined the face broadly, and, while emphasising the features with
definite though narrow shadows, made it dominate the ensemble. Very
often this concentration of effect was associated with a forced and
arbitrary use of chiaroscuro. In many of his pictures one finds the
lower portion of the figure, including the hands, low in tone through
the artist having arranged a screen or blind to throw a shadow over the
parts he wished subordinated. This device appears in full-lengths as
well as in busts and threequarter-lengths, and while, no doubt, helping
to the desired end, is now and then a disturbing influence from the
fact that it is difficult to account for the result from purely normal
causes. With Rembrandt, the greatest master of concentrated pictorial
effect, the transitions from the fully illumined passages to the
surrounding transparent darks are so gradual and so subtle that one
scarcely notices that the effect has been arranged--the concentration
is an integral part of the imaginative apprehension of the subject. It
is otherwise with Raeburn, in his earlier work at least. Later he
attained much the same results by less arbitrary and apparent means, by
swathing the hands and arms--the high tone of which he evidently found
disconcerting and conflicting with the heads--in drapery, by placing
them where they tell as little as possible, and by modifications in
handling. His management of accessories was also determined by desire
for concentration. Although, as is obvious from his increasing use of
it, preferring a simple background from which the figure has
atmospheric detachment, he frequently used the scenic setting which
Reynolds and Gainsborough had made the vogue. His idea, however, was
that a landscape background should be exceedingly unassertive--"nothing
more than the shadow of a landscape; effect is all that is
wanted"--and, always executing them himself, his are invariably
subordinate to the figure. But the essential quality of his vision
went best with plain backgrounds. That he did not wholly abandon the
decorative convention which he heired, and often employed to excellent
purpose, was due in large measure to caution. "He came," says W. E.
Henley, "at the break between new and old--when the old was not yet
discredited, and the new was still inoffensive; and with that exquisite
good sense which marks the artist, he identified himself with that
which was known, and not with that which, though big with many kinds of
possibilities, was as yet in perfect touch with nothing actively
alive." Yet, had he had the full courage of his convictions, his work
would have been an even more outstanding landmark in the history of
painting than it is. Still to ask from Raeburn what one does not get
from Velasquez, many of whose portraits have a conventional setting, is
to be more exacting than critical, and, as has been indicated,
simplicity of design and aerial relief became increasingly evident in
Raeburn's work, and that in spite of the protests of some of his
admirers.
While Raeburn had been working towards a fuller and more subtle
statement of likeness, modelling, and arrangement, it is possible that
removal to his new studio accelerated development in that direction.
The painting-room had been designed by himself for his own special
purposes, and no doubt suggested new possibilities. In any case, the
portraits painted after 1795 reveal a definite increase in the
qualities mentioned. But before considering the characteristics of his
later style, it might be well to tell what is known of his habits of
work and technical procedure. Cunningham's summary of these applies
partly to the George Street and partly to the York Place period, but
for practical purposes they may be regarded as one, for, while
Raeburn's art may be divided into periods, each was but a stage in a
gradual and consistent evolution. "The motions of the artist were as
regular as those of a clock. He rose at seven during summer, took
breakfast about eight with his wife and children, walked into George
Street, and was ready for a sitter by nine; and of sitters he generally
had, for many years, not fewer than three or four a day. To these he
gave an hour and a half each. He seldom kept a sitter more than two
hours, unless the person happened--and that was often the case--to be
gifted with more than common talents. He then felt himself happy, and
never failed to detain the party till the arrival of a new sitter
intimated that he must be gone. For a head size he generally required
four or five sittings: and he preferred painting the head and hands to
any other part of the body; assigning as a reason that they required
less consideration. A fold of drapery, or the natural ease which the
casting of a mantle over the shoulder demanded, occasioned him more
perplexing study than a head full of thought and imagination. Such was
the intuition with which he penetrated at once to the mind, that the
first sitting rarely came to a close without his having seized strongly
on the character and disposition of the individual. He never drew in
his heads, or indeed any part of the body, with chalk--a system pursued
successfully by Lawrence--but began with the brush at once. The
forehead, chin, nose, and mouth, were his first touches. He always
painted standing, and never used a stick for resting his hand on; for
such was his accuracy of eye, and steadiness of nerve, that he could
introduce the most delicate touches, or the almost mechanical
regularity of line, without aid, or other contrivance than fair
off-hand dexterity. He remained in his painting-room till a little
after five o'clock, when he walked home, and dined at six.... From one
who knew him in his youthful days, and sat to him when he rose in fame,
I have this description of his way of going to work. "He spoke a few
words to me in his usual brief and kindly way--evidently to put me into
an agreeable mood; and then having placed me in a chair on a platform
at the end of his painting-room, in the posture required, set up his
easel beside me with the canvas ready to receive the colour. When he
saw all was right, he took his palette and his brush, retreated back
step by step, with his face towards me, till he was nigh the other end
of the room; he stood and studied for a minute more, then came up to
the canvas, and, without looking at me, wrought upon it with colour for
some time. Having done this, he retreated in the same manner, studied
my looks at that distance for about another minute, then came hastily
up to the canvas and painted for a few minutes more." These details
may be supplemented by the list of colours used by him, which Alexander
Fraser, R.S.A., gave in _The Portfolio_. "His palette was a simple
one; his colours were vermilion, raw sienna (but sometimes yellow ochre
instead), Prussian blue, burnt sienna, ivory black, crimson lake,
white, of course, and the medium he used was 'gumption,' a composition
of sugar of lead, mastic varnish, and linseed oil. The colours were
ground by a servant in his own house and put into small pots ready for
use." When one adds that his studio had a very high side-light, and
that he painted on half-primed canvas with a definitely marked twill,
all that is known of his practice has been noted.
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