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• 19th Century Scottish Painting

• John Clerk of Eldin , circa 1800
• oil on canvas
• 30 1/4 in. x 25 1/8 in. (76.84 cm x 63.82 cm)

• Sir Henry Raeburn  (Stockbridge (now in Edinburgh), 1756 - 1823, Edinburgh)
• Scottish

• Museum Purchase: Currier Funds, 1933.8

• On View

When John Clerk (1728-1812) sat for this portrait he was semi-retired from his profitable career as a merchant in Edinburgh, Scotland.  In his leisure time, Mr. Clerk studied art, architecture, archaeology and naval strategy.  He became an active archaeologist and proficient teacher, and shared his fascination with military strategy by recreating pivotal naval battles in his home and inviting friends and family.  Elaborate models of actual ships and sites would be spread out on tables while Clerk demonstrated the strengths and weaknesses of the strategies employed.  A colleague described him as "an interesting and delightful old man, full of peculiarities, alert, caprice, obstinacy and kindness."

Raeburn, knighted in 1822, is considered Scotland's finest portrait painter of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century and is particularly renowned for his intense focus on his sitter's faces.