Mrs. Alexander Dirom, wife of Lieutenant-General Alexander Dirom of Mount Annan 1819

Henry Raeburn painted Mrs. Alexander Dirom, wife of Lieutenant-General Alexander Dirom of Mount Annan, sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century. Raeburn was a leading portrait painter in Scotland during a period of significant social and political change, including the Enlightenment and the rise of the British Empire, to which General Dirom was devoted. Mrs. Dirom is elegantly posed, draped in a white dress and red shawl, signifying her status within Scottish society, and perhaps symbolizing domesticity. Her soft gaze suggests a sense of quiet strength. While the painting may appear to simply represent the image of a woman from the upper classes, it also speaks to the complex ways in which women like Mrs. Dirom were both confined by and complicit in the social structures of their time. As the wife of a military man, her identity was closely tied to her husband's position and the empire's reach. This artwork invites us to reflect on the personal lives interwoven with the grand narratives of history.