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Shown from the knees up, an older man sits in a rustic wooden chair and holds up a pocket watch for a young child who stands at his knees in this vertical portrait painting. They both have pale, peachy skin with flushed cheeks. They are lit from our upper left so the man’s face is partly in shadow while light pours onto the child’s upturned face. The man’s body is angled to our right, almost in profile, but he turns his head to look at us with dark eyes under heavy brows. His has a bulbous nose, lined cheeks, and a heavy jowl around thin lips, which are closed in a line. His light gray, wavy hair is tied back at the nape of his neck. He wears a black coat with a high collar and tightly fitting sleeves. A streak of white at his neck suggests a white shirt under the black, high-necked vest that covers his torso. He rests his right elbow, closer to us, on the arm of the chair so he can dangle a pocket watch in front of the child. The man’s knees disappear behind the child, who leans against his legs. The pocket watch is attached to a short gold chain, and the child holds up the fob, which is shaped like a Hershey’s Kiss candy, at the end of the chain. The young boy looks up at the watch with luminous, brown eyes. He has smooth, round cheeks, a short nose, and his pink lips are closed. The child has wavy, golden brown hair and his white garment has a squared neckline, short sleeves, and falls like a skirt off the bottom edge of the painting. The background behind the pair is painted with streaks of marigold orange, gold, and olive green to suggest trees against a sky painted with butter and harvest yellow, rust orange, and just a touch of pale blue at the upper left corner. The entire portrait is loosely painted, especially in the background, chair, and clothing.

Sir Henry Raeburn

John Tait and His Grandson, c. 1793, with additions c. 1800

West Building, Main Floor - Gallery 58

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 126 x 100 cm (49 5/8 x 39 3/8 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1937.1.103

Artists / Makers

Sir Henry Raeburn (artist) Scottish, 1756 - 1823

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Provenance

Craufurd Tait, Edinburgh [d. 1832], the sitter's only son; by descent through John Tait [d. 1877], the child in the portrait, to Mrs. Frederick Pitman, née Tait, Edinburgh, by 1901; her eldest son, Archibald Robert Craufurd Pitman, Edinburgh; sold October 1918 to (Robert Langton Douglas, London and New York);[1] purchased February 1919 by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; [2] deeded December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] John S. Pitman (Archibald Pitman's brother), undated letter to Langton Douglas, in NGA curatorial files. See letter from Douglas to Fowles dated 1 May 1941, Duveen Brothers Records, Box 244 (reel 299).

[2] M. Knoedler & Co. stock books (Helmut Ripperger to Ross Watson, 28 September 1969, in NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Douglas, Robert Langton
Knoedler & Company, M.
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Mellon, Andrew W.
Pitman, Archibald Robert Craufurd
Pitman, Frederick, Mrs.
Tait, Craufurd
Tait, John

Exhibition History

1863: Works of Deceased and Living Scottish Artists, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1863, no. 293.

1876: Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A., Gallery of Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1876, no. 183.

1895: Old Scottish Portrait Painters, Grafton Galleries, London, 1895, no. 76.

1908: Scottish National Exhibition, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1908, no. 32.

1911: Pictures by Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A., French Gallery (Wallis & Sons), London, 1911, no. 8, repro.

1925: Pictures by Raeburn, M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, 1925, no. 4.

1995: The New Child: British Art and the Origins of Modern Childhood, 1730-1830, University Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, 1995-1996, unnumbered cat., pl. 31.

Technical Summary

The medium-heavyweight canvas is twill woven; it has been lined. The ground is white, of moderate thickness. The painting is executed fluidly and thinly, blended wet into wet, except in the rendering of the child, where the coloration and shadows in the face are applied in glazes and the costume is painted thickly to cover the dark paint of an earlier composition. X-radiographs show that the child was added later; the sitter was originally shown with his arm resting on the chair, holding a hat. The thinner areas are solvent abraded, and the impasto has been slightly flattened during lining. As a result of exposure to excessive heat, the paint has been damaged along the right edge in a strip approximately 2.5 cm. wide. Otherwise the painting is in good condition. The moderately thick natural resin varnish has discolored yellow to a significant degree.

Bibliography

1901: Armstrong, Sir Walter. Sir Henry Raeburn. London, 1901: 19, 113, repro. opp. 44.

1911: Greig, James. Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A.: His Life and His Works. London, 1911: xxxv, 61, pl. 24.

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 161, no. 103.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 241, repro. 17.

1949: Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 118, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 106.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 94, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 276, repro.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 522, color repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 368, no. 520, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 322, repro.

1992: Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 199-202, repro. 201.