Collection

Portrait of Janet Anderson, late 1780s

Henry Raeburn, British (Scottish)


Like The Allen Brothers, this portrait dates from early in Henry Raeburn’s career. A recent cleaning has brought out the broadly applied, “square” brushstrokes that are the hallmark of his technique, especially in the painting of the clothes. He was a prolific and largely self-taught artist who became the most sought-after portraitist among the landowning and professional classes of his native Scotland. Born Janet Mitchelson, the sitter married John Anderson, an Edinburgh lawyer, in 1784. They had nine children.

Provenance

Provenance

Presumably painted for the sitter’s husband, John Anderson [1754-1814], Inchyra, Scotland.

John A. Wood, London by 1876.

A. R. Wilson Wood, London, by 1901.

Possibly (Gooden and Fox, London), 1904.

Sir George Donaldson [1845-1925], London, by 1907.

Sir John Donaldson.

(Sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 18 June 1954, no. 19);

purchased for £2205 by (Newhouse Galleries, Inc., New York);

purchased by Kimbell Art Foundation, Fort Worth, 1954.