Allan Ramsay (1713-1784)

• Was a prominent Scottish portrait-painter.
• Ramsay was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the eldest son of Allan Ramsay.
• From the age of twenty he studied in London under the Swedish painter Hans Hysing, and at the St. Martin's Lane Academy.
• He was leaving in 1736 for Rome and Naples, where he 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, later he moved to London.
• His pleasant manners and varied culture, not less than his artistic skill, contributed to render him popular.
• One of his drawing pupils was Margaret Lindsay, eldest daughter of Sir Alexander Lindsay of Evelick and Amelia Murray.
• He gave up painting in about 1770 to concentrate on literary pursuits.
• His health was shattered by an accidental dislocation of the right arm and his second wife's death in 1782.
• With unflinching pertinacity, he struggled until he had completed a likeness of the king upon which he was engaged at the time, and then started for his beloved Italy.
• He left a series of 50 royal portraits to be completed by his assistant Reinagle.
• For several years he lingered in the south, his constitution finally broken.
• He died at Dover on 10 August 1784.
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