Sir Henry Raeburn is perhaps the best known of all Scottish painters. He was almost exclusively a portraitist and his career was wholly in Scotland, mainly in Edinburgh.
Apprenticed to a jeweller, it is not precisely known how Raeburn’s attention turned to painting. His small full-length portrait of the Rev Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch (Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland) of about 1784 is probably his most famous work. Raeburn was elected a member of the Royal Academy in London in 1815. In 1822 he was knighted by George IV and given the post of King’s Limner in Scotland.
