_-_Robert_Cleghorn_(c.1760%E2%80%931821)%2C_MD%2C_Physician_to_the_Glasgow_Royal_Asylum_(1814%E2%80%931818)_-_0110_-_Royal_College_of_Physicians_and_Surgeons_of_Glasgow.jpg&width=1200)
Robert Cleghorn (c.1760–1821), MD, Physician to the Glasgow Royal Asylum (1814–1818)
Sir Henry Raeburn·c. 1790
Historical Context
Robert Cleghorn, physician to the Glasgow Royal Asylum, is depicted by Raeburn in another of the institutional portraits that document the medical community of late eighteenth-century Scotland. Cleghorn's position at the asylum — one of the more progressive psychiatric institutions in Britain — places him in the context of Enlightenment reform of mental illness treatment. Raeburn, who spent virtually his entire career in Edinburgh and Glasgow rather than London, created a collective portrait of Scottish professional and intellectual life that is unmatched by any other painter of his period.
Technical Analysis
The portrait adheres to Raeburn's standard professional male formula: three-quarter length, dark coat, plain ground, strong directional light on the face. Within this convention, Raeburn individualizes through careful attention to the specific character of the sitter's face — the set of the jaw, the quality of the gaze.
