Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-henry-raeburn-437" aria-label="More by Sir Henry Raeburn" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir Henry Raeburn</a>
Mrs Charles Steuart
Bequeathed by Sir Edward Stern 1933
actions: postures and motions
adults
individuals: female
landscape
named individuals
Oliphant, Amelia Anne Sophia
people
portraits
sitting
Steuart, Charles, Mrs
woman
wooded
painting oil paint canvas
Mrs Charles Steuart
support: 1241 × 991 mm
Bequeathed by Sir Edward Stern 1933
<p><b>N04693</b> MRS CHARLES STEUART (?) <i>c</i>.1794
<br/>
<br/>Oil on canvas, 48 7/8 × 39 (124.1 × 99.1)
<br/>Bequeathed by Sir Edward Stern to the National Gallery, with life interest to his widow, 1933. Transferred to the Tate Gallery 1979
<br/><i>Prov:</i> Presumably by descent to John Nairne Durrant-Steuart (great-great-grandson of Charles, the 9th laird); his sale, Dowell's, Edinburgh, 19 March 1904 (81), bought by Lawrie; with Agnew's by 1904; Sir Edward Stern by 1909.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Agnew's Winter exhibition 1904 (13); <i>Cent Portraits de Femmes</i>, Paris, 1909 (34, repr. in cat.)
<br/><i>Lit</i>: Note on the Durrant-Steuart sale in Connoisseur, IX, 1904, p.59; Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues, The British School, 1946, p.110.
<br/>
<br/>The picture is first recorded at the Durrant-Steuart sale in 1904, where the sitter was ‘believed to be’ the first Mrs Charles Steuart. Charles Steuart, 9th laird of Dalgusie, co.Perth (1756–1821) first married, in 1786, Grace, eldest daughter of Robert Steuart of Ballechin, who died in 1787. He married his second wife, Amelia Anne Sophia (d.1808), second daughter of Laurence Oliphant of Gask, in 1794. As Raeburn returned from Italy in the year of the first Mrs Steuart's death, it is unlikely that he had time to paint her. Stylistically the picture is quite compatible with a later date and is therefore more likely to be a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> of the second Mrs Steuart, possibly a marriage portrait of c.1794. In the absence of any other evidence, however, the possibility cannot be excluded that this could be some other member of the Durrant-Steuart family.
<br/>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>The Tate Gallery 1978-80: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions</i>, London 1981
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-06T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults individuals: female landscape named individuals Oliphant, Amelia Anne Sophia people portraits sitting Steuart, Charles, Mrs woman wooded