Boy and Rabbit

This is a family portrait depicting the artist’s godson and step-grandson, Henry Inglis, with his rabbit. The painting is intimate – the boy’s relaxed pose and loose clothing suggests that the two Henrys had a close relationship, while his protective hand around the animal (and his other poised to offer more dandelion leaves) suggests the animal was a beloved pet rather than a wild animal. The domesticity of the scene is a contrast to many more formal paintings of everyday life, in which any animals depicted would have typically been chosen for their symbolic value, rather than their relationship with the sitter.

Henry Inglis was deaf and unable to speak. When this artwork was on loan to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, curators worked with deaf guides to craft an interpretation panel explaining that “looking after an animal can help people feel calm. There are no communication barriers with animals, and so close friendships can be formed.” Despite society’s limited understanding of deafness and disabilities in the early 19th century, Inglis succeeded in following his godfather into art, studying at Trustees Academy in Edinburgh.

Henry Raeburn RA was born in 1756 and went on to enjoy an unchallenged position as the leading Scottish portrait painter of his day. While many Scottish artists moved to London to further their careers, Raeburn remained in Edinburgh throughout his life. Although he regularly sent works to be exhibited in the RA’s Summer Exhibition, he described his submissions somewhat dismissively in an 1819 letter to fellow Scot and artist David Wilkie, calling them merely “an advertisement that I am still in the land of the living, but in other respects it does me no good, for I get no notice from anyone, nor have I the least conception how they look beside others.”