This portrait drawing, worked in black and white chalk on blue paper, was made by Allan Ramsay in the first decades of his professional career and offers a rare insight into Ramsay’s working process. Ramsay was one of the finest portraitists working in Britain during the middle decades of the eighteenth century.
He was born in Edinburgh the son of Allan Ramsay the poet and author of The Gentle Shepherd. After studying in Italy from 1736 to 1738 as a pupil of Francesco Imperiali in Rome, where he came under the influence of Imperiali’s pupil, Pompeo Batoni. He also worked in Francesco Solimena’s studio in Naples. On returning to London, Ramsay established himself as an immensely successful portrait painter, becoming the leading practitioner responsible for introducing a new informality to the genre. Drawing was a vital part of Ramsay’s studio practice, he used drawings to set poses, capture compositional details and record the likeness of his sitters. Ramsay regularly relied on the Flemish drapery painter Joseph Van Aken to complete the costumes in his portraits and a substantial archive of studies by Van Aken survive recording his work with Ramsay and Thomas Hudson. This beautifully observed head study is worked in black and white chalk on blue paper. The paper is preserved in immaculate condition, with no sign of fading or loss of strength. The male portrait, with its distinctive physiognomy, does not appear to relate to a known Ramsay composition, but the penetrating study is almost certainly an ad vivum work.
