Ramsay, Allan (1713–1784)

Scottish painter. Having studied in Edinburgh and then in Italy, he settled in London, becoming one of the most successful portraitists of his day, his works valued for their charm and elegance. He became artist to George III in 1760 and played an active role in London's literary and intellectual life.

He is particularly noted for his female portraiture, especially in the period 1754–66, as in his masterpiece The Artist's Wife (1755; National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh), a portrait of Margaret Lindsay, his second wife. He was devoted to drawing, and the value of this study can be seen in his full-length portraits, for example of Lady Mary Coke (Marquess of Bute collection).

Unlike his younger contemporary and rival, Joshua Reynolds, he sought for grace rather than grandeur in European models, acquiring in his earlier work a baroque elegance from his studies in Naples and Rome, and profiting by the example of Solimena and Batoni. He later delighted in the rococo delicacy of the French in Nattier, Perronneau, and Quentin de la Tour. This European cultivation made him highly esteemed when he returned from Italy in 1736.

After the 1760s he delegated much to assistants and ‘drapery men’, such as Joseph van Hacken, taking up literary pursuits and becoming a member of Dr Johnson's circle.

Ramsay, Allan (1685–1758)

Scottish anthologist and poet. He was chiefly responsible for the renaissance of Scottish literature in the 18th century. The Ever Green (1724) was an anthology of mainly edited versions of pre-1600 Scottish poetry, including the work of William Dunbar and Robert Henryson. The several volumes of The Tea-Table Miscellany (1724–37) comprised songs and ballads.

Ramsay was born in Leadhills, Lanarkshire. He became a wigmaker and then a bookseller in Edinburgh. He was the father of the painter Allan Ramsay. His Poems was published 1721, and his verse play The Gentle Shepherd 1725.