Allan Ramsay

Allan Ramsay was the court painter of George III. Born in 1713 in Edinburgh, Ramsay studied painting in Rome as a young man and, upon his return to Britain in 1738, quickly became one of London's most successful portraitists. He was appointed to the court of George III in 1761. In his later life, Ramsay became an essayist, writing on such disparate topics as the English constitution, the American Revolution, and Latin meter. From 1777 to 1784 he worked on a treatise entitled, An Enquiry into the Situation and Circumstances of Horace's Sabine Villa Written during travels through Italy in the years 1775, 76, and 77. Ramsay did not live to publish the text, but two manuscripts are preserved in Edinburgh. Ramsay's interest in Horace reflects a longstanding interest in the Roman poet which he shared with his father (also called Allan Ramsay), one of Scotland's most famous poets. Ramsay is seen at the left in a self-portrait dating from 1776.