Robert Stewart (1774/5-1799) of Castle Stewart and St Fort
Sir Henry Raeburn, RA (Stockbridge 1756 – Edinburgh 1823)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1790 - 1799
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1270 x 1016 mm (50 x 40 in)
Place of origin
Scotland
Order this imageCollection
Montacute House, Somerset
NT 597922
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Robert Stewart (1743-1800) of Castle Stewart and St Fort by Henry Raeburn, RA (Stockbridge 1756 – Edinburgh 1823), 1790-99. A portrait of an elderly, stout man, three-quarter length turned to the left, gazing at spectator, seated, cross-legged, (right over left), on a rustic wooden chair beneath a tree with a distant horizon to the left. He has a short powdered wig and is dressed in a green coat, white waistcoat and breeches, white shirt and stock and small ruffles at the sleeve. The sitter was the eldest son and heir of William Stewart, a merchant and onetime Provost of Perth, and of Christian Cree, the daughter of another provost of the city. In 1763 he was in the army of the East India Company, where he was painted by Tilly Kettle. By 1783 he had returned to Scotalnd, where in 1784 he married Anne Balfour (d.1845), the daughter of Henry Balfour of Benboig. In 1790 he purchased the estates of Castle Stewart in Wigtownshire and St Fort in Fife, where he rebulit the house (now a ruin). They had five children, including a son and heir, Archibald Captain Stewart.
Provenance
Probable that, with its companion it came from the Houston Boswall collection; Ernest Cook (1865-1955) had acquired the painting from Gooden and Fox; on the 28th June 1946, James Lees-Milne noted in his diary [?date] that he had called on Ernest Cook at his house in Syon Place, Bath. “Then called on Mr Cook…to see two Raeburns he offers the Trust for Montacute” ['Caves of Ice' by James Lees Milne, p.65 -The two portraits by Sir Henry Raeburn were 597922 (MON.P.15) & 597923 (MON.P.16)]; given by Ernest Cook, 1947
Credit line
Montacute House, The Ernest Cook Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Recto: Small gilt tablet affixed to bottom centre of frame, inscribed:
Makers and roles
Sir Henry Raeburn, RA (Stockbridge 1756 – Edinburgh 1823), artist
References
Gore 1969: F. St John Gore, 'Pictures in National Trust Houses', supplement to Burlington Magazine, Vol.cxi, No.793. April 1969, pp.239-58, p.248. "Montacute House, Somerset (Montacute, Nr.Yeovil) Ownership. Pictures given with the house by Mr Ernest Cook, 1931. Raeburn Robert Stewart 50 x 40." Montacute House, Somerset, 1976 [The National Trust; Dudley Dodd] 1976, "THE LIBRARY ANTE-ROOM West Wall Robert Stewart of Castle Stewart by Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823). Given by Mr Ernest Cook." Montacute House, Somerset, 1991 [The National Trust; Malcolm Rogers] 1991, p.63 "THE LIBRARY ANTE-ROOM PAINTINGS Robert Stewart of Castle Stewart and St Fort Nothing is known of the sitter. (Cook bequest.) Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823), c.1800-10." Montacute House, Somerset, 1997 [The National Trust; Malcolm Rogers] 1991, revised 1997 , p.63 "THE LIBRARY ANTE-ROOM PAINTINGS Robert Stewart of Castle Stewart and St Fort Nothing is known of the sitter. (Cook bequest.) Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823), c.1800-10." Montacute House, Somerset, 2004-2006 [The National Trust; Malcolm Rogers] 2000, revised 2004, reprinted 2005, 2006, p.51 "THE LIBRARY ANTE-ROOM PAINTINGS Robert Stewart of Castle Stewart and St Fort Nothing is known of the sitter. (Cook bequest.) Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823), c.1800-10."