We’ve selected a few key objects from our collections for you to explore. These are the highlights of the National Gallery of Scotland.
Thomas Gainsborough
The Honourable Mrs Graham (1757 - 1792)On Display | NATIONAL GALLERY OF SCOTLAND
This is one of Gainsborough's finest full-length portraits in the tradition of Van Dyck. The costume and accessories deliberately echo seventeenth-century fashion and enhance the elegant beauty of the Honourable Mrs Graham (1757-1792). She was born the Honourable Mary Cathcart, daughter of 9th Baron Cathcart, who was Ambassador to Catherine the Great. She married the Perthshire landowner Thomas Graham, later Lord Lynedoch, in 1774. The portrait was highly acclaimed when exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1777. Thomas Graham, devastated by his wife's premature death in 1792, passed the painting to her sister. It was bequeathed to the National Gallery by one of their descendants on condition that it never leaves Scotland.
Glossary [1] Show
Royal Academy
An independent institution founded in 1768 with Sir Joshua Reynolds as its first president. It is governed by the Royal Academicians - leading painters, sculptors, printmakers and architects, which number no more than 80 at one time. It organises exhibitions at its London galleries, including an annual Summer Exhibition.
- Accession no. NG 332
- Medium Oil on canvas
- Size 237.00 x 154.00 cm
- Credit Bequest of Robert Graham of Redgorton 1859
Thomas Gainsborough (English, 1727 - 1788)
Gainsborough excelled as a portrait and landscape painter. He was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, and trained in London. He became a highly successful artist, first in Ipswich, then in Bath. He concentrated on portraiture to make a living and continued to build on the grand manner of Van Dyck, but also introduced a refreshing informality through his imaginative landscape backgrounds and his fluid, lively brushwork. Gainsborough was a founder member of the Royal Academy in 1768 and returned to London in 1774. He was artistically and temperamentally quite different from his rival Reynolds, but the two artists developed a sincere mutual respect.
Glossary [1] Show
Royal Academy
An independent institution founded in 1768 with Sir Joshua Reynolds as its first president. It is governed by the Royal Academicians - leading painters, sculptors, printmakers and architects, which number no more than 80 at one time. It organises exhibitions at its London galleries, including an annual Summer Exhibition.