Portrait of Mrs. Johnstone.
circa 1790 - circa 1810
Oil on canvas
h: 35.5 x w: 27 in / h: 90.2 x w: 68.6 cm
This work was done during Raeburn's best period and is one of the best painting by the artist that is not in a museum.
Three
quarter length, seated in a white dress with a black scarf over her
head, looking at a miniature portrait with a landscape beyond
Provenance
Mrs. Edward Ferguson, London;
With Wallis & Sons.
Exhibited
Edinburgh, Royal Academy, Raeburn Exhibition, 1876, no. 176 (lent by Mrs. Ferguson);
Scottish National Portrait Exhibition, 1884.
Literature
W. Raeburn Andrew, Life of Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A., London 1894, no. 176;
J. Greig, Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A., London 1911, p. 50.
Catalogue Note
Mrs.
Johnstone was the wife of Commodore George Johnstone who was the third
son of Sir James Johnstone, third Baronet, of Westerhall.

reprinted from From Art UK, about a replica of this painting:

"Mrs Johnstone wears a white dress with a black widow's veil on her
head and is holding a portrait miniature in her hand. Behind the
miniature, a path leads to a grand domed mausoleum set amid cyprus
trees. Her eyes are downcast as she contemplates the portrait miniature,
presumably of her late husband Commodore George Johnstone who died in
1787.

The left hand and drapery over the sleeve are considered to be by a
lesser painter and appear, from the condition of the paint beneath, to
have been completed at a much later date. This tells us that Raeburn may
have abandoned the work after Mrs Johnstone’s death in 1813."

The Kenwood House painting is a replica of a portrait the artist completed in 1791.
in the collection of Kenwood House, Hampstead, London