International studio (34.1908)

Raeburn s
the no less descriptive lights by which the coarse
features are rough-hewn, as it were, from a block
of granite. Everyone knows how such abrupt and
vivid accents served Hals; how, under the elan of
his handling, hues, in themselves gross and earthy,
become instinct with life. Even so, in this typical
Raeburn, the play and interplay of the skilfully
accented lights and shadows with the broader and
more fused surfaces of the flesh bring out tones
which, though hardly existing on the canvas,
complete the modelling, and, from the proper
standpoint, convert the summary and seemingly
inadequate brushings into a living, breathing
reality. This vivacity of accent in the flesh, though
it culminates in Lord Newton and in Mrs. James
Campbell, characterises much of the painter’s best
work, and is generally felt in proportion as his
subject admits of the treat-
ment. In the illustrations
here given both of male
and female portraiture it is
more or less marked, whilst
in Wardrop of Torbanehill
it is seen in combination
with qualities rarely at-
tained by the artist. And
the Scotsman thereby as-
sociates himself with a
phase of recent as well as
of earlier direct painting.
Does not Miss Ross, in the
trenchant yet sympathetic
rendering of the handsome
features and the supple
lines of the bare throat,
recall some quite modern
work ?
From 1795, when Rae-
burn removed to York
Place, his portraits indicate
the use of a higher side
light, the oblique shadows
cast by brows and nose
being more pronounced,
and all horizontal markings
having their under-surfaces
shadowed. It is to be re-
gretted that the exigencies
of a constant practice per-
mitted him to vary his treat-
ment so little in this respect.
For to this, and to his
yielding to the fashion of
the time in the matter of

Technique
backgrounds, it may be due that he did not realise
more fully the mystery of true lighting. For what
avails truth of relative tones in face and figure if
these are falsely related to their setting ? His very
attainments in tonality make the adjuncts of curtain
and pillar, or decorative landscape, much mcfre in-
jurious to Raeburn’s portraits than to those of his
English predecessors and contemporaries, which
lent themselves readily to such treatment. For as
true lighting implies a unity, a portrait treated so
brooks no such conventional environment. What
the Scottish painter might have attained in this di-
rection is best seen in the full-length of Col. Alastair
Macdonell of Glengarry, where, from some un-
known circumstance, the usual treatment has
been departed from. Everything points to the
conclusion that the portrait has been painted in


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