ALLAN RAMSAY (SCOTTISH 1713-1784)
HALF-LENGTH PORTRAIT OF ANNE, LADY INGLIS
£10,080
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Evening Session | 7th December 2023 at 18:00
Description
Inscribed, feigned oval, oil on canvas
Dimensions
76cm x 63.5cm (30in x 25in)
Provenance
Provenance:
J.B. Sutherland sale, Christie's, 8 February 1929, lot 81
MacNicol, Glasgow c.1960
Private Collection Scotland
Literature:
Alistair Smart, Allan Ramsay: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, Yale University Press, 1999, p.142, no.289a
Note:
The prime version of this portrait is in the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (NG2152).
Footnote
Allan Ramsay played an instrumental role in establishing a national identity for British art. His precise and sensitive portraiture earned him widespread acclaim, aided by his prodigious intellectualism and social flair which ingratiated him with an elite stratum of patrons; amongst his friends he counted David Hume, Adam Smith, Samuel Johnson and James Boswell (Dr Johnson reflected that there was no man ‘in whose conversation there is more instruction, more information, and more elegance, than in Ramsay’s’). His ascension to Principal Painter to the King in 1767 promoted him amongst a prestigious cohort which included Anthony van Dyck, Peter Lely, Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Lawrence. 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.
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.
This portrait of Anne, Lady Inglis dates to earlier in Ramsay’s career when he made regular visits to his native Edinburgh to fulfil portrait commissions of eminent society figures. His talent for articulating his subject’s personality is evident in Anne’s twinkling eyes and knowing smile. During his lifetime Ramsay was particularly celebrated for his talent for painting women. When comparing his portraiture with that of the young Joshua Reynolds, Horace Walpole observed that the two painters could
Scarce be rivals; their manners are so different. [Reynolds] is bold, and has a kind of tempestuous colouring, yet with dignity and grace; [Ramsay] is all delicacy. Mr Reynolds scarcely succeeds with women: Mr Ramsay is formed to paint them.