Painting Detail
Portrait of Mrs Eleanor BethuneArtist: Henry Raeburn
Medium: Painting, Oil on canvas, 76x64 cm
Date: 1790-1798
Genre: Portrait
Location: The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
Raeburn, whom contemporaries respectfully called the "Reynolds of the North," founded a Scottish school of painting. Although a master of the society portrait, he preached unconditional fidelity to nature. His restrained palette and simple compositions are grounds for regarding him as expressive of the "Scottish spirit."