Ramsay, Allan

Ramsay, Allan (b Edinburgh, 2 Oct. 1713; d Dover, 10 Aug. 1784).
Scottish painter, active mainly in London, where he was the outstanding portraitist from about 1740 until the rise of Reynolds in the mid-1750s. He studied in Edinburgh and London, and then from 1736 to 1738 in Italy (including a period with Solimena in Naples), and when he returned to London he brought a cosmopolitan air to British portraiture. His pictures of women have a decidedly French grace (The Artist's Wife, c.1755, NG, Edinburgh) and in this field he continued to be a serious rival to Reynolds. He was preferred to Reynolds by the royal family and in 1767 was appointed principal painter to George III. However, after injuring his right arm in an accident in 1773 he gave up painting (although his studio continued to produce replicas of royal portraits) and devoted himself to his other interests. He was the son of the poet Allan Ramsay, and he inherited his father's literary inclinations. Political pamphleteering, classical archaeology (he revisited Rome in 1754–7 and 1775–7), and conversation took up much of his later years. He was a prominent figure in literary circles and Samuel Johnson said of him: ‘You will not find a man in whose conversation there is more instruction, more information, and more elegance.’