He was born the son of a manufacturer in Stockbridge, a former village now within the city of Edinburgh.
Orphaned, he was supported by his older brother and placed in Heriot's Hospital, where he received an education. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a goldsmith, and various pieces of jewellery, mourning rings and the like, adorned with minute drawings on ivory by his hand, still exist.
Soon he took to the production of carefully finished portrait miniatures; meeting with success and patronage, he extended his practice to oil painting, at which he was self-taught.
The goldsmith watched the progress of his pupil with interest, and introduced him to David Martin, who had been the favourite assistant of Allan Ramsay the Latter, and was now the leading portrait painter in Edinburgh. Raeburn was especially aided by the loan of portraits to copy.
Soon he had gained sufficient skill to make him decide to devote himself exclusively to painting.
Read more here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Raeburn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niel_Gow interesting, another violin sync. I chanced upon The Fiddler of the Reels by Thomas Hardy this week
ReplyDeleteYep.............Neil Gow was a folk hero, from humble beginings to the greatest fiddle player Scotland has ever seen. He played at society weddings and at the penny weddings of the village folk. One of the first people to truly cross the class divide and be equally at home with the rich and the poor. Well done you for finding this, great write up.
ReplyDeletethese are truly wonderfull
ReplyDeleteone thought that occurred to me while i looked them over
i notice that the sky and backgrounds always seem to match the clothing style of the day
looking at work from different time periods
bright and colorful clothing styles has bright sunny skies
darker clothing styles have a more sober sky
i wonder if it is matching the background to the clothes
or since the painter has those colors mixed
or just an influence of the painting style of the time
:)
wonderful post thank you
ReplyDeleteI love portraits like these. They're so much better than photos.
ReplyDeletethink you are right Nemo, I think Raeburnn always uses quite a limited pallett and limits his colours, but I think the overall effedt is stunning, he was one of the greatest portrait painters ever.
ReplyDeleteLove them thanks
ReplyDeleteVery Cool Thanks!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting stuff. Thanks much!
ReplyDelete