es have risen steadily from the very modest sums of
twenty years ago until fine pictures by him fetch as much as
representative specimens of Reynolds and Gainsborough. Fashion has had
much to do with this greatly enhanced reputation, but another, and more
commendable cause of the appreciation, not of the commercial value but
of the artistic merit of his work, lies in the fact that the qualities
which dominate it are those now held in highest esteem by artists and
lovers of art. Isolated though he was, Raeburn expressed himself in a
manner and achieved pictorial results which make his achievement
somewhat similar in kind to that of Velasquez and Hals.

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PLATE II.--CHILDREN OF MR AND THE HON. MRS PATERSON OF CASTLE HUNTLY.
(Charles J. G. Paterson, Esq.)

Painted within a year or two of Raeburn's return from Italy, some
critics have seen, or thought they saw, in this picture the influence
of Michael Angelo. Be this as it may, the handling, lighting, and tone
and disposition of the colour are eminently characteristic of much of
the work done by Raeburn about 1790.

[Illustration: Plate II.]

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I

If, during the last century, Scotland has shown exceptional activity in
the arts, especially in painting, and has produced a succession of
artists whose work is marked by able craftsmanship and emotional and
subjective qualities, which give it a distinctive place in modern
painting, the more than two hundred years which lay between the
Reformation and the advent of Raeburn seemed to hold little promise of
artistic development. During the Middle Ages and the renaissance the
internal condition of the country was too unsettled and its resources
were too meagre to make art widely possible. Strong castles and
beautiful churches were built here and there, but intermittent war on
the borders and fear of invasion kept even the more settled central
districts in a state of unrest. Moreover, the fierce barons were at
constant feud amongst themselves, and not infrequently the more
powerful amongst them were banded against the King. Of the first five
Jameses only the last died, and that miserably, in his bed. The innate
taste of the Stewarts, no doubt, created an atmosphere of culture in
the Court, and this tendency was further strengthened by commercial
relations with the Low Countries