Portrait of Sir William Farquhar
Engraving after Sir Henry Raeburn

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Sir Walter Farquhar, Bart.
Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823) (after)
William Sharp (1749-1824) (engraver)
Sir Walter Farquhar, Bart.
London: Late 18th Century
Copperplate Engraving
18 5/8 x 14 Inches
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Sir Walter Farquhar (1738-1819) was a prominent Scottish physician, a naval surgeon who later became the personal physician to the Prince of Wales. His intelligence and self-confidence come through in Raeburn's depiction.

Sir Henry Raeburn may be the best known of all Scottish painters. According to the Grove Dictionary of Art, "He was almost exclusively a portrait painter, and his work did much to define Scottish society in a period of immense vigor and intellectual distinction." By the 1780s he was the leading portraitst of Edinburgh. His paintings are in the collections of prominent museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Washington's National Gallery of Art, the Tate Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery in London.

William Sharp was a British draftsman and engraver who illustrated for the Novelists Magazine and various books, and produced plates after old masters and contemporary artists such as West, Trumbull and Reynolds. He also involved himself in controversial causes. As a young man, he was a republican and a friend of Thomas Paine and Horne Tooke. At one point he was examined for treason by Privy Council. Later he became a staunch adherent of Joanna Southcott's prophetic religious ministry.

References:

"Sir Henry Raeburn," Artists' Biographies from the Grove Dictionary of Art, Macmillan, 2000, http://www.artnet.com/library/07/0705/T070538.asp.

Maxted, Ian. "The London book trades 1775-1800, a preliminary checklist of members." Exeter Working Papers British Book Trade History. 2001. http://www.devon.gov.uk/library/locstudy/bookhist/lons.html