Art-Raeburn-Miss Eleanor Urquhart TB

I maintain records on my trackables. For a US-based trackable, this one is unusual for its longevity and movement. In the six-year period, 2010-16, the owner released a total of 2563 trackables in the United States (96%) and Europe (4%). This trackable is one of the 5% of the total that circulated for at least 5 years and had been moved at least 25 times. That is a target rate of at least five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days. The average drop rate of my trackables in the US is 124 days, in Europe it is 71 days. As of 24-Sep-22 this one has survived for 6.0 years and had been moved by 36 cachers, for an average drop every 61 days. > Please keep it moving, then drop it in a safe place!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the US, please drop it in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event where there is no security. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and dry, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

I have already released several groups of art-themed travel bugs.  While I have seen numerous works by British artists in my travels, I find they are underrepresented among my TBs.  This is one in a small series to correct that oversight.

Henry Raeburn (1756-1823) was a Scottish portrait painter and Scotland's first significant portrait painter to remain based in Scotland.  Raeburn was born the son of a manufacturer in Stockbridge, on the Water of Leith; a former village now within the city of Edinburgh. His ancestors were believed to have been soldiers, and may have taken the name 'Raeburn' from a hill farm in Annandale, held by Sir Walter Scott's family. Orphaned, he was supported by his older brother and placed in Heriot's Hospital, where he received an education.

At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to the goldsmith James Gilliland of Edinburgh.  Soon he took to the production of carefully finished portrait miniatures; meeting with success and patronage, he extended his practice to oil painting, at which he was self-taught. Gilliland watched the progress of his pupil with interest, and introduced him to David Martin, who had been the favorite assistant of Allan Ramsay the Latter, and was now the leading portrait painter in Edinburgh. Raeburn was especially aided by the loan of portraits to copy. Soon he had gained sufficient skill to make him decide to devote himself exclusively to painting. George Chalmers (1776; Dunfermline Town Hall) is his earliest known portrait.  He served as Portrait Painter to King George IV in Scotland.

It is difficult to establish a chronology for the more than one thousand portraits he made during a fifty-year career as Scotland's foremost painter. Although dedicated to his art, Raeburn need not have worked at all. At twenty-four, he had married a wealthy widow and become a member of Edinburgh society.

This lovely Scottish woman was the eldest daughter of William Urquhart, 2d Laird of Craigston, Aberdeenshire. Her portrait and companion likenesses of her parents were paid for on 10 January 1794; the artist's receipt was preserved among Urquhart family papers. 

I chose this work for the travel bug before I learned it is considered Raeburn’s masterpiece.  It was selected because of the subject alone.  She just seems to be pleasant and intelligent and perhaps someone I would like.  It is interesting that she is still a Miss although she appears to be around 30 years of age.  There is a story to be had here.