Portrait of a Jew
About this artwork
This was painted for Dr Gregory (1753-1821), Professor of Medicine at Edinburgh and inventor of the once famous 'Gregory's Pills'. Raeburn exhibited the painting in 1814 as 'Portrait of a Jew' but in fact the costume is Polish rather than Jewish and there is no obvious reason for Raeburn's title. The artist's style here is influenced by Rembrandt who often portrayed rabbis and members of the Jewish community in seventeenth-century Amsterdam. It may be that Raeburn consciously tried to emulate Rembrandt's subject-matter as well as style in this striking portrait.
Updated before 2020
see media-
artist:Sir Henry Raeburn (1756 - 1823) Scottish
-
title:Portrait of a Jew
-
date created:1814
-
materials:Oil on canvas
-
measurements:76.20 x 63.50 cm; Framed: 98.30 x 84.50 x 9.00 cm / 13.00 kg
-
object type:
-
credit line:Presented by Mrs F.C. Holland 1948
-
accession number:NG 2108
-
gallery:
Sir Henry Raeburn
Sir Henry Raeburn
Originally apprenticed to a goldsmith, Henry Raeburn showed enormous artistic talent as a young man. In 1784 he moved to London where he met the important portrait painter Joshua Reynolds. He spent some time in Italy but returned to Edinburgh in 1787 where he began painting portraits of the rich,...