Sir Walter Scott, 1771 - 1832. Novelist and poet

2021 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott, Scotland’s most celebrated author. It is a timely moment to revisit this iconic portrait which features on Bank of Scotland banknotes. Painted by Sir Henry Raeburn, Scotland’s most revered portraitist of the time, it captures Scott at the peak of his fame.

Scott was initially reluctant to let Raeburn paint him. He worried that the artist’s recent bankruptcy had forced him to put quantity before quality, dashing off canvases to increase his earnings. His concerns were unfounded. Combining rich colours with fluent brushwork, the portrait shows Scott as the ideal literary genius. Bathed in light, he fixes his gaze on some unseen object, as if contemplating an imaginary vision that will become the subject of his next novel or poem.

Ironically, Scott himself faced bankruptcy a few years later. Success had encouraged him to overspend, especially on the decoration of his country house, Abbotsford. When a financial crash hit in 1826, he was unable to save his publisher and printer from collapse. Exhausted by his attempts to write his way out of debt, he sailed to the Mediterranean in late 1831 to recuperate. It was not enough: he suffered a stroke on his return journey and died at Abbotsford the following year.

Credit: Purchased with assistance from the Art Fund 1935