Allan Ramsay (Edinburgh 1713-1784 Dover)


Study for Portrait of Gentleman in a Velvet Coat, possibly Lord John Murray (circa 1759) inscribed '5th button/buttoned from/below' (upper right)black chalk, heightened with white, on buff paper47.5 x 29.5 cm. (18 11/16 x 11 5/8 in.)
|ProvenanceSale; Edmiston's, Glasgow, circa 1945. Purchased by Mr Clark HunterMiss MA Hunter, PaisleySale; Sotheby's, Belgravia, circa 1981Private Collection, ScotlandLiteratureA Smart and J Ingamells, Allan Ramsay, a Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, Paul Mellon Centre, 1999, cat.no.687 figure 500The vendor holds a letter from professor Alastair Smart, dated September 1981, calling it an 'extremely fine' Ramsay drawing. He states that he had already been aware of it from a photograph taken by the Paul Mellon Centre. Smart states how adept Ramsay became at indicating a likeness by even such slight touches and that the inscription, in his own hand, may well have been a (costume) direction to drapery painters in his studio.He recognises similarities with Ramsay's oil portrait of General Lord Murray of Philiphaugh, and that (despite costume differences) 'nevertheless the sitter could be the same person'.