The Scottish National Portrait Gallery today unveiled a new acquisition, "Portrait of Lady Montgomery" by Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823). This elegant and impressive full-length portrait was allocated to the SNPG through the Acceptance in Lieu of Tax scheme early this year.
It is a major work by Sir Henry Raeburn, the leading Scottish portrait painter of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Full-length portraits from Raeburn’s late career are rare, and this imposing yet sensitively modelled work is the only example of a female sitter depicted by the artist in this format in the SNPG’s collection. Raeburn’s handling of Lady Montgomery’s features and clothes is at once vivid and yet highly subtle. She appears to gently smile at the viewer, while posed before a dramatic skyscape.
