In late March and early April 1801, the seventeen-year old son of Edward Satchwell Fraser and Jane Fraser of Reelig traveled to Edinburgh from his family home in Inverness-shire en route to London. It was the first of William Fraser’s numerous visits to the studio of Sir Henry Raeburn, where this dashing portrait was painted. The finished portrait was dispatched to the family dining room in northern Scotland while its sitter was relocated to Delhi as a colonial servant of the East India Company. William fell under the Mughal spell, fathering numerous children from his harem of five or six Muslim and Hindu wives. He never returned to Scotland, for he was assassinated while commissioner of Delhi in 1835.
<nowiki>William Fraser of Reelig (1784–1835); dipinto di Henry Raeburn; Henry Raeburn festménye; pintura de Henry Raeburn; quadre de Henry Raeburn; Gemälde von Sir Henry Raeburn; pintura de Henry Raeburn; painting by Henry Raeburn; maleri af Henry Raeburn; pictură de Henry Raeburn; obraz Henry Raeburn; målning av Henry Raeburn; måleri av Henry Raeburn; pintura de Henry Raeburn; schilderij van Sir Henry Raeburn; peinture d'Henry Raeburn; pikturo da Henry Raeburn; cuadro de Sir Henry Raeburn; painting by Sir Henry Raeburn; pintura de Henry Raeburn; pentraĵo de Henry Raeburn; maleri av Henry Raeburn; pintura di Henry Raeburn</nowiki>