Allan Ramsay (13 October 171310 August 1784) was a Scottish painter who specialised in portrait painting.

Life and career

thumb|upright|Allan Ramsay in old age by [[Michael Foye 1776]]

Ramsay was born on 13 October 1712, in Edinburgh, Scotland, the eldest son of Allan Ramsay, poet and author of The Gentle Shepherd. From the age of 20, he studied in London under the Swedish painter Hans Hysing, and at the St. Martin's Lane Academy; leaving in 1736 for Rome and Naples. In Rome, he enrolled as a day student at the French Academy and worked for three years under Francesco Solimena and Imperiali (Francesco Fernandi).

On his return in 1738 to the British Isles, he first settled in Edinburgh, attracting attention by his head of Duncan Forbes of Culloden and his full-length portrait of Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, later used on Royal Bank of Scotland banknotes. He later moved to London, where he was employed by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater.

thumb|upright|left|First wife Anne Bayne, painted by Ramsay

He gained recognition in London for both his artistic work and his social connections. Three children survived from their long marriage, Amelia (1755–1813), Charlotte (1758–1818?), and John (1768–1845).

Ramsay and his new wife spent 1754 to 1757 together in Italy, going to Rome, Florence, Naples and Tivoli, researching, painting and drawing old masters, antiquities and archaeological sites. He used the material of blue paper as a support. He earned income painting Grand Tourists' portraits. During these trips to Italy, Ramsay also pursued literary and antiquarian research in addition to his artistic work. After their return, Ramsay in 1761 was appointed to succeed John Shackleton as Principal Painter in Ordinary to George III, beating Hudson to the post. The King commissioned so many royal portraits to be given to ambassadors and colonial governors, that Ramsay used the services of numerous assistants—of whom David Martin and Philip Reinagle are the best known.

Art

thumb|[[Coronation Portrait of George III, ]]

Among his most satisfactory productions are some of his earlier ones, such as the full-length of the Duke of Argyll, and the numerous bust-portraits of Scottish gentlemen and their ladies which he executed before settling in London. They are full of both grace and individuality. Art historians have noted the precise draughtsmanship and the technical qualities of his flesh-painting. His full-length of Lady Mary Coke has been noted for the treatment of its white satin drapery; while the portrait of his brown-eyed second wife Margaret, in the National Gallery of Scotland, is described as having a sweetness and tenderness. The portrait of his wife also shows the influence of French art, which Ramsay incorporated into his work. The large collection of his sketches in the possession of the Royal Scottish Academy and the Board of Trustees, Edinburgh also reflect stylistic influences associated with French art of the period.

Paintings

thumb|Portrait of Lady [[Anne Rushout by Ramsay.]]

Ramsay has paintings in the collection of a few British institutions including the National Gallery in London, Sheffield, Derby Museum and Art Gallery (attributed), Glasgow Museum and Newstead Abbey.

In 2016, a portrait of Richard Mead (King George II's physician) by Ramsay was discovered by Bendor Grosvenor (using the Art UK website) as part of the British BBC Four television programme Britain's Lost Masterpieces; conservation treatment was carried out by Simon Rollo Gillespie to repair the torn canvas and remove layers of discoloured varnishes.

One of Ramsay's most famous paintings is entitled simply Portrait of an African and has attracted extensive attention across recent decades, both as a representation of an individual African in 18th century Britain, but also for the difficulty of identifying the sitter. A documentary that features this painting, exploring the many meanings of its enigmatic image, has been produced by Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery in Exeter.

Theory

In 1755, Ramsay made a considerable contribution to the Greco-Roman controversy, which was mainly discussed in Paris and Rome, when he anonymously published his Dialogue on Taste, in which he named Greece as the superior source of artistic excellence.

Abolitionism and paintings of Queen Charlotte

According to Mario de Valdes y Cocom in 2009, on an edition of PBS Frontline, in several paintings of Queen Charlotte, Ramsay deliberately emphasised "mulatto features" which the Queen supposedly inherited via descent from a 13th-century Moorish ancestor. Valdes suggests that copies of these paintings were sent to the colonies to be used by abolitionists as a de facto support for their cause.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="168" caption="Allan Ramsay's works">

File:Allan Ramsay 1713-1784.jpg|Self-portrait, 1756

File:Allan Ramsay - The Artist's Wife- Margaret Lindsay of Evelick, c 1726 - 1782 - Google Art Project.jpg|Portrait of his second wife, Margaret Lindsay

File:Lost Portrait of Charles Edward Stuart.jpg|The lost portrait of Charles Edward Stuart, painted in Edinburgh in 1745

File:Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz by studio of Allan Ramsay.jpg|Queen Charlotte as painted by Allan Ramsay in 1762

File:Allan Ramsay - David Hume, 1711 - 1776. Historian and philosopher - PG 3521 - National Galleries of Scotland.jpg|Portrait of David Hume, 1754

File:6th Earl of Coventry.jpg|George Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry

File:David Hume Ramsay.jpg|Portrait of David Hume, 1766

File:Allan Ramsay - Alexander Boswell, Lord Auchinleck - Google Art Project.jpg|Alexander Boswell, Lord Auchinleck

File:Allan Ramsay - Lady in a Pink Silk Dress - Google Art Project.jpg|Lady in a Pink Silk Dress

File:John Burgoyne after Allan Ramsay.jpg|John Burgoyne, painted in Rome in 1758

File:Sir John Inglis of Cramond by Allan Ramsay, SNG.jpg|Sir John Inglis, 2nd Baronet

File:Sir William Douglas, 4th Baronet.jpg|Sir William Douglas, 4th Baronet of Kelhead

File:Sir John St. Clair by Allan Ramsay, 1754 (cropped).jpg|Sir John St. Clair, 1754

</gallery>

Writings

  • A Dialogue on Taste, 1762 (Kessinger Publishing, 2009)
  • Letters on the Present Disturbances in Great Britain and her American Provinces 1777 (Gale ECCO, 2010)
  • Observations on the Riot Act, 1781 (Gale ECCO, 2010)

References

Further reading

  • Macmillan, Duncan (1984), Scottish Painting: Ramsay to Raeburn, in Parker, Geoffrey (ed.), Cencrastus No. 17, Summer 1984, pp.&nbsp;25–29,
  • Macmillan, Duncan (2023), Scotland and the Origins of Modern Art, London: Lund Humphries,
  • Works in the National Galleries of Scotland
  • Nigel Warburton on the significance of two portraits of Hume and Rousseau
  • Art "4" "2"-Day – Collection of Short Biographies
  • Web Gallery of Art – more examples of Ramsay's work
  • Alastair Smart Archive - Research on Allan Ramsay