This portrait of the artist’s brother Henry Lauder was most likely painted in 1827 after Robert Lauder returned from London. It is one of a group of three family portraits Robert made, the others being his father John Lauder of Silvermills, and his brother James Eckford. This portrait of Henry is experimental in lighting, to a degree that might not have been possible in a commissioned portrait, and shows Lauder's strong painterly tendencies already developed. There seems to have been an inclination amongst the Scottish portraitists of the 1820s to exploit dramatic and unexpected lighting effects, and the portrait of Henry Lauder has several features in common with Andrew Geddes' portrait of Charlotte Nasmyth, known as 'Summer' (NG 191), and exhibited at the Royal Institution, in 1828.