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Lot Essay
The son of the Rev. William Mitchell, the sitter married, at the age of fourteen, his ten-year-old cousin Barbara Mitchell, heiress to the lands of Thainston in Aberdeenshire. Educated at Edinburgh and Leyden, he was Under-Secretary of State for Scotland 1742-46, M.P. for Aberdeenshire 1747-54, and Elgin Burghs 1755-71. He was British Minister to the Prussian Court at the time of the Seven Years' War.
Smart (op.cit.) suggests that the drapery may be by David Martin, observing that 'In the financial year 1766-7 David Martin received over 300 from Ramsay, and it is probable that in a large number of the portraits of this date he was responsible for the accessories'. Two versions of this picture are recorded in Scottish private collections, and a copy is in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
The present picture was presumably that retained by the sitter, whose papers also passed to the Forbeses of Craigievar.
Smart (op.cit.) suggests that the drapery may be by David Martin, observing that 'In the financial year 1766-7 David Martin received over 300 from Ramsay, and it is probable that in a large number of the portraits of this date he was responsible for the accessories'. Two versions of this picture are recorded in Scottish private collections, and a copy is in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
The present picture was presumably that retained by the sitter, whose papers also passed to the Forbeses of Craigievar.