Artwork Information

This portrait of General Henry Wynyard by Scotland’s most distinguished society painter, Henry Raeburn (1756 –1823), was probably commissioned to commemorate the elevation of the sitter to the exalted rank of Commander-in-Chief in Scotland in July 1812. It shows Wynyard in half-length, turned slightly to the right, with natural hair. Painted under theatrical downlighting against a dark background, Wynyard’s face is softly modelled, framed by unruly wisps of greying hair that renders him romantically youthful and dreamy. Shown in an attitude of serene composure, his expression is enlivened by the interplay of shadows and highlights. Raeburn, who was said to have never made sketches and to have always painted from life, was renowned for his ability to make even his grandest sitters seem human and approachable. A celebrated veteran of many battles in the French Revolutionary wars, Henry Wynyard is dressed in a gilt-laced scarlet tunic, trimmed with ‘aiguillettes’, the gilded cords worn by officers to distinguish special and senior appointments. Raeburn’s brush does not labour over these details but instead renders them in a cursory, almost abstract manner, allowing the strong light to dramatize the ‘bling’ of the Regency military regalia. A close version of this portrait, which shows the sitter oriented to the left, was owned by William Cornwallis West (1835-1917).