Allan Ramsay (1713-1784)

Portrait of Sir Andrew Mitchell, K.B. (1708-1771) , half-length, in the Robes of the Order of the Bath

細節

Allan Ramsay (1713-1784)
Portrait of Sir Andrew Mitchell, K.B. (1708-1771) , half-length, in the Robes of the Order of the Bath
signed and dated 'A.Ramsay/1766' (lower left)
oil on canvas
30 x 25 in. (76.3 x 63.6 cm.)
in a contemporary carved and gilded frame

來源

Presumably by descent from the Forbeses of Craigievar to
William Forbes-Sempill, 19th Baron Sempill; Dowell's, Edinburgh, 1948, as Reynolds.
Purchased by H.N. Mitchell in 1949, and by descent to the vendor.

出版

A. Smart, The Life and Art of Allan Ramsay, London, 1952, pp.121 and 211 (CI).
J. Kerslake, Early Georgian Portraits, London, 1977, p.187.

展覽

Edinburgh, 7 Charlotte Square, An Exhibition of Portraits and Drawings by Allan Ramsay 1713-1784, 23 August-17 September 1949, no.23.

拍品專文

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.