DOI Heft:
No. 133 (March, 1908)
DOI Artikel:McKay, William Darling: Reaburn's technique: its affinities with modern painting
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28254#0034
Raeburn's
the chiefs own hall. The convention which dic-
tated the shadowy battlefield, war ships under full
sail, or undulating park for the soldier, the admiral,
or the country squire, would naturally suggest for
Glengarry some abstract of rugged peak and barren
moor. But no ; by some happy chance Raeburn
has realised the appropriateness of the actual back-
ground as his subject posed—the shadowed wall
of the apartment broken only by a pilaster in low
relief and a few emblems of war and of the chase.
The result is delightful. That his usual treatment
was no mannerism is shown by the ease with which
his brush adapts itself to the unwonted lighting.
Incidentally the novelty of this fair complexion
flooded with level light, which the chieftain turns to
face, has solved his old difficulty with the yellows
and carnations, whilst the treatment of the almost
shadowless eyes recalls
Stevenson’s words con-
cerning Velasquez’s Mo ti-
tan es \ “No lines are
wanted to bring out the
'shapes; tire painter’s
science of values is all-
sufficient.” But what
gives unique value to this
portrait is that the tones
of face and figure are not
only in true relation to
each other, but also to
their setting. Nor is this
“ keeping,” or enveloppe,
attained by any degrada-
tion of colour or sacrifice
of character, as is apt to
be the case when it is
reached through the too
conscious use of a theory.
The now formulated science
of values enables the merest
tyro to get his enveloppe, but
often the enclosure scarcely
justifies the skill expended
thereon.
Hitherto Raeburn’s ex-
perience of London had
been confined to the op-
portunities his Italian visit
had afforded in going and
coming, but in 1810, moved
by some thoughts of settling
there, he paid a third visit
to the Metropolis. He was
dissuaded from the venture,
Technique
and, at the age of fifty-four, no doubt he acted wisely
in electing to remain in Edinburgh. But the few
weeks he spent in London were not without tangible
result, and from this date his works show certain
qualitieswhich relate him more closely to his southern
compeers. Already in the three-quarter-length of
Mrs. Kennedy of Dunure (1811), and in the half-
lengths of The Earl and Countess of Wemyss (1812),
one feels that he is aiming at new ideals. There is,
with the fuller brush, a softer handling, and the sur-
face generally has more of the pulpy consistency of
flesh. Not infrequently this is gained at the expense
of that finer rendering of the structure which char-
acterised the best work of the period immediately
preceding. In Mrs. Kennedy, for example, the
difference of the firmer and more mobile parts is
insufficiently expressed, whilst in various male pcr-
‘MISS ROSS” BY SIR H. RAEBURN, R. A.
(In the Collection of Sir Edvard Tennant, Bart., M. P.)
14
the chiefs own hall. The convention which dic-
tated the shadowy battlefield, war ships under full
sail, or undulating park for the soldier, the admiral,
or the country squire, would naturally suggest for
Glengarry some abstract of rugged peak and barren
moor. But no ; by some happy chance Raeburn
has realised the appropriateness of the actual back-
ground as his subject posed—the shadowed wall
of the apartment broken only by a pilaster in low
relief and a few emblems of war and of the chase.
The result is delightful. That his usual treatment
was no mannerism is shown by the ease with which
his brush adapts itself to the unwonted lighting.
Incidentally the novelty of this fair complexion
flooded with level light, which the chieftain turns to
face, has solved his old difficulty with the yellows
and carnations, whilst the treatment of the almost
shadowless eyes recalls
Stevenson’s words con-
cerning Velasquez’s Mo ti-
tan es \ “No lines are
wanted to bring out the
'shapes; tire painter’s
science of values is all-
sufficient.” But what
gives unique value to this
portrait is that the tones
of face and figure are not
only in true relation to
each other, but also to
their setting. Nor is this
“ keeping,” or enveloppe,
attained by any degrada-
tion of colour or sacrifice
of character, as is apt to
be the case when it is
reached through the too
conscious use of a theory.
The now formulated science
of values enables the merest
tyro to get his enveloppe, but
often the enclosure scarcely
justifies the skill expended
thereon.
Hitherto Raeburn’s ex-
perience of London had
been confined to the op-
portunities his Italian visit
had afforded in going and
coming, but in 1810, moved
by some thoughts of settling
there, he paid a third visit
to the Metropolis. He was
dissuaded from the venture,
Technique
and, at the age of fifty-four, no doubt he acted wisely
in electing to remain in Edinburgh. But the few
weeks he spent in London were not without tangible
result, and from this date his works show certain
qualitieswhich relate him more closely to his southern
compeers. Already in the three-quarter-length of
Mrs. Kennedy of Dunure (1811), and in the half-
lengths of The Earl and Countess of Wemyss (1812),
one feels that he is aiming at new ideals. There is,
with the fuller brush, a softer handling, and the sur-
face generally has more of the pulpy consistency of
flesh. Not infrequently this is gained at the expense
of that finer rendering of the structure which char-
acterised the best work of the period immediately
preceding. In Mrs. Kennedy, for example, the
difference of the firmer and more mobile parts is
insufficiently expressed, whilst in various male pcr-
‘MISS ROSS” BY SIR H. RAEBURN, R. A.
(In the Collection of Sir Edvard Tennant, Bart., M. P.)
14