The son of the renowned poet of the same name, Allan Ramsay was born into Edinburgh’s creative and literary circles. He began his artistic training in London under the Swedish painter Hans Hysing. It was the years spent studying in Rome & Naples between 1736-8, however, which cemented the style which brought him such popularity upon his return to Britain.
Ramsay’s portraits were praised for their engaging directness and a sense of naturalism more typical of European than British portraiture. He had few close rivals, and quickly gained many important patrons in London and Edinburgh, including the Duke of Argyll and the Duke of Bridgewater. In the later decades of his career he would be appointed the Principal Painter in Ordinary to George III, the highest post and most significant accolade achievable by a portrait artist at that time. In this capacity, and under the prolific patronage of George III, Ramsay’s royal portraiture established an iconography that would define the monarch’s reign across the world for generations to come. His stature as the leading artist of his day was further evidenced when in recent years it was discovered that he had been secretly commissioned to produce a painting of Charles Edward Stuart on the cusp of his invasion of England.
The most pivotal commission of his career came from the 3rd Earl of Bute in 1757, who employed Ramsay to execute a full-length portrait of the Earl’s pupil George, the Prince of Wales (later King George III). The resulting likeness was deemed so satisfactory that George, in turn, commissioned a portrait of his teacher. Ramsay thus established a fruitful relationship with George, who would prove one of the most enthusiastic patrons of the arts since Charles I. Upon George’s 1761 Coronation he engaged Ramsay’s services as ‘One of his Majesty’s Painters in Ordinary’, his first charge being to produce a pair of resplendent full-length Coronation portraits of the King and Queen. The Lord Chamberlain’s Office required numerous copies of these paintings to be distributed to Ambassadors and Governors of the Old World and the New, a task that would occupy Ramsay and his studio assistants for the rest of his life.
Ramsay’s prodigeous success might be attributed to three key factors: firstly, his career burgeoned during an age of renewed connoisseurship with art patronage becoming a defining factor of what it meant to be a gentleman; secondly, Ramsay had enjoyed a successful introduction into London Society by his friend and champion Dr. Richard Mead - an important and influential arbiter of taste; thirdly, he was arguably the first artist in Britain to move away from the conventions of previous generations and adopt a more naturalistic French approach to portraiture. Allan Ramsay's style is typified by a sophisticated delicacy, at the same time achieving a high level of truth to his subjects and an unprecedented sense of intimacy.
Ramsay, as well as being a major artistic talent, was a cultured and charismatic individual and is associated with many of the great names of the Enlightenment Period. He painted his friend the philosopher David Hume, and Dr Samuel Johnson spoke warmly in praise of him;
“'I love Ramsay. You will not find a man in whose conversation there is more instruction, more information, and more elegance, than in Ramsay's.”
