This collection of essays was published on the occasion of a conference, ‘Henry Raeburn: critical reception and international reputation’, which was held on 10 and 11 November 2006 at the University of Edinburgh to mark the 250th anniversary of the artist’s birth in Edinburgh. In the foreword the editors make it clear that their aim was not to produce a chronological and evaluating account of the artist’s life and oeuvre: a catalogue raisonné of Raeburn’s works is being prepared by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Yale University Press. Rather, this publication’s aim was to ‘recover Raeburn from his artistic isolation [in Scotland], by looking at his contexts in Scotland, Britain, and abroad, notably in France and the United States’ (p xvi). This theme, together with an assessment of Raeburn’s critical reception and national and international legacy, runs like a thread through the collection, providing the reader with a fascinating and profound insight into the complexities not just of Raeburn’s art, but also of his own attitudes to travelling, promoting his own work, his social context, the art market around 1800 and the lasting effect of the dominance of London as the centre of the arts in Britain at the time.

Talented, prolific and respected as an artist in Scotland, Raeburn never quite did conquer, or indeed embrace, the London art scene, visiting only once in 1810. While successful as an artist, his family business in shipping and the West India trade soon collapsed, resulting in his bankruptcy in 1808. However, commissions were steady and he was admired, even feted, by English painters and patrons, although, as the editors argue, ‘Raeburn may have been too far removed from the melée of London professional politics to generate substantial critical debate there’ (p 13). The collection successfully analyses his critical reception (or lack of) in the past and present and highlights the effects of geographical and social isolation. Many of Raeburn’s works are still not identified, registered or fully catalogued, while the predominant association with the name Raeburn is that of the atypical The Revd Robert Walker (known as the Skating Minister) from c 1798–9, a painting of doubtful attribution. Lloyd in particular makes a strong case for the need for more research into Raeburn, using the likely mis-attribution of this painting as a good reason to look closer and more carefully and to consider the wider and lesser known contexts of this Scottish painter. His argument is convincing: drawing on his own earlier daring suggestion (Lloyd 2005) that the Skating Minister is actually the work of Henri-Pierre Danloux, he underpins his theory here with scientific evidence (by proving that lead-white, a pigment typically used by Raeburn, is notably absent in this painting). Once the Skating Minister has been put to one side, the stage opens up to many new, unexpected and significant aspects of the artist’s work and time presented in three groups of essays, all commissioned for this volume: five of these deal with the context of Raeburn’s work and four each with reception and reputation. The essays are, without exception, extremely well researched and provide much new information and previously unpublished material. Each reader will have different preferences and interests, but of particular quality are, for example, Stana Nenadic’s contribution on ‘Raeburn and the print culture of Edinburgh, c. 1790–1830’, and Jordan Mearns’s essay on Raeburn’s portraits of women, in the past frequently under-appreciated, and perhaps misunderstood, partly because of the visual dominance of the Skating Minister. Several essays take Raeburn firmly out of his self-imposed Scottish isolation and place him in an international context, such as Robyn Asleson’s account of Raeburn’s works in American collections (‘Raeburn in America: Scottish–American networks’) and Oliver Meslay’s ‘Raeburn and France’.

Although book design is not an important feature of this publication, it is laudable that the front cover of the book shows a female figure painted by Raeburn, one half of the double-portrait of General Francis Dundas and his wife Eliza Cumming (c 1812–15), which is representative of much of Raeburn’s genius. As Mearns notes, Raeburn’s women are ‘singularly sensual depiction[s] of femininity’, often deliberately set against a bitumen-darkened background, quite unlike the glossier and more vibrant portraits of his English colleague, Thomas Lawrence, and all the more subtle for it.

This is a highly academic volume, bringing together recent and significant research on Henry Raeburn. It is not a glossy coffee-table book or even a beautifully illustrated publication, but a number of relevant images are included. The editors also co-curated an exhibition held in the same year, ‘Henry Raeburn and his Printmakers’, at the Talbot Rice Art Gallery, University of Edinburgh, which was accompanied by an exhibition catalogue. Both publications together and the exhibition itself can be considered a major and overdue contribution to the study of an often overlooked Georgian artist.