George Harley Drummond (1783–1855)
Dashing in his snugly fitting riding clothes, the sitter of this portrait was the scion of a wealthy banking family. Married at age seventeen, he later “ruined his life by gambling and dissipation,” according to a family historian, and abandoned his wife and children. In depicting Drummond as a paragon of landed masculinity, Raeburn drew on the longstanding tradition of equestrian portraits, such as Reynolds’s Captain George K. H. Coussmaker, on view in this gallery. However, Raeburn departed from earlier precedents by depicting Drummond’s grazing horse from behind, its lowered head nearly lost in the shadows.
Artwork Details
- Title: George Harley Drummond (1783–1855)
- Artist: Sir Henry Raeburn (British, Stockbridge, Scotland 1756–1823 Edinburgh, Scotland)
- Date: ca. 1808–9
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 94 1/4 x 58 in. (239.4 x 147.3 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Guy Fairfax Cary, in memory of her mother, Mrs. Burke Roche, 1949
- Object Number: 49.142
- Curatorial Department: European Paintings
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Sir Henry Raeburn (British, Stockbridge, Scotland 1756–1823 Edinburgh, Scotland)
1801
Sir Henry Raeburn (British, Stockbridge, Scotland 1756–1823 Edinburgh, Scotland)
Sir Henry Raeburn (British, Stockbridge, Scotland 1756–1823 Edinburgh, Scotland)
Sir Henry Raeburn (British, Stockbridge, Scotland 1756–1823 Edinburgh, Scotland)
Sir Henry Raeburn (British, Stockbridge, Scotland 1756–1823 Edinburgh, Scotland)
ca. 1808–9
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