Casting an Eye on Raeburn
Mary Gladstone on the mechanics behind an acclaimed exhibition
Kirkcudbright's Town Hall-turned-Galleries
TO STAGE a 'world class' major, temporary exhibition, "one of the best seen in Dumfries & Galloway", as some viewers of Eye to Eye: Sir Henry Raeburn's Portraits (until September 29) claim, Kirkcudbright Galleries have punched well above their weight. And an extensive overview of Scotland's finest portrait painter, up there with Gainsborough, Reynolds and Romney, is long overdue.
During its first month, the exhibition attracted over 5,000 visitors. On several days in August, it drew 350. Given the dismal summer weather and visitors to the region in recent years have dwindled, these numbers buck the disappointing trend.
Curator Herries
The prospect of bringing together 40 Raeburn portraits from all over the UK was ambitious and expensive and Kirkcudbright Galleries' budget couldn't meet the demands of such an important exhibition. So, much work had to go towards raising money for it.
Planning, particularly fund-raising, began two years before the scheduled opening. Identifying sponsors and understanding application procedures were vital. Another challenge was which Raeburn portraits would they include. As many were held in national collections the team, headed by Amanda Herries, had to apply for permission two years in advance. To make matters worse, some collections were unable to lend portraits because of their own funding constraints.
"There was never any chance of seeking loans from abroad," says Amanda Herries. This was not ideal, as roughly 300 Raeburns are in foreign collections and ruled out almost all of Raeburn's portraits of children. They were among the first to be sold in the rush for buying British art at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Americans were fond of Raeburn, as the period in which he painted (the late 18th and early 19th centuries) is considered "the Golden Age of British art".
"If we had found a sponsor to cover the cost of transporting a portrait from America, I have no doubt that the collection would have been willing to lend it." As it was, transport costs far outweighed all others. One painting, belonging to the Dumfries & Galloway collection, was ear-marked for the exhibition, but the estimated cost for a designated art-mover to transport it from Dumfries to Kirkcudbright and back again, amounted to almost £ 7,000 and this was more than the gallery could afford.
It's illuminating the number of portraits of women in the exhibition. Generally, Raeburn is acclaimed for his male portraiture of 'the great and good', ranging from Highland chieftains to philosophers, scientists and men of the judiciary.
'Eye to Eye: Sir Henry Raeburn's Portraits' belies this fact. Women here are skilfully represented and appeal to contemporary taste in the depiction of their fashionable costume.
Herries' success in making Raeburn accessible to the modern eye, is in demonstrating that his period correlates to our own, particularly when it comes to portraiture. This is illustrated in the show's digital presentation that 'folds from a portrait by the artist into a contemporary photograph and back again.
All the contemporary portrait photographs are of Dumfries & Galloway residents and are anonymous, encouraging the viewer to look carefully at the images and connect the Raeburn portraits with the modern photographs.' The presentation was put together by one of the Dumfries & Galloway graphics team.
Amanda Herries opines that it's easy to focus on contemporary art or the post-Impressionist Glasgow school (particularly as Kirkcudbright is associated with the latter) because we feel we are more connected to them than with artists from an earlier period, who were classical practitioners. These later 'schools', however owe much to the classical in spite of it being dismissed by many as outdated and dull.
The value of this exhibition, then, is that it helps the viewer to see how relevant Raeburn's portraits are to our age.
Amanda Herries is due to speak on Saturday, September 28 at the Wigtown Book Festival (10.30am) on the background, challenges and preparations for a major exhibition like - Eye to Eye: The Portraits of Sir Henry Raeburn at Kirkcudbright, leaving just enough time to visit it before it closes on the 29th!
