Mrs. Richard Alexander Oswald (Louisa Johnston, ?born about 1760, died 1797)

Sir Henry Raeburn

ca. 1794 · Oil on canvas · European Paintings

The portrait was painted about a year after the sitter’s marriage in 1793 to Richard Alexander Oswald. In praise of her beauty, the Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote a song, "O, Wat ye Wha’s in Yon Town." The setting sun brilliantly illuminates the sky through a screen of tree trunks and foliage, a device Raeburn favored in the mid-1790s. The subject is shown seated outdoors holding a book, lost in thought.

Artist

Sir Henry Raeburn

Date

ca. 1794

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. Paul Moore, 1980