Lady Maitland (Catherine Connor, died 1865)

Raeburn's portrait of Lady Maitland (Catherine Connor, d. 1865) presents a Scottish gentlewoman with the warm, direct style of his mature Edinburgh manner. The dating raises questions — if painted in 1776, Raeburn would have been only twenty, and the style suggests a later date — but the work in any case exemplifies the qualities that made him Scotland's most celebrated portraitist. His female portraits have a quality of comfortable authority: his sitters are neither idealized beyond recognition nor reduced to mere social function, but presented as complete human beings whose dignity derives from intelligence and character as much as from rank and dress.

The portrait demonstrates Raeburn's ability to capture feminine character with his characteristically direct approach. Strong light from one side creates dramatic modeling, and the brushwork is bold and confident in its handling of features and costume.