Allan Ramsay

Allan Ramsay (Edinburgh 1713-1784 Dover) Three Quarter Length Portrait of John Campbell, Lord Stonefield signed and dated 'A Ramsay/1749' (lower right), inscribed 'LORD STONEFIELD' (lower left) oil on canvas 125 x 100 cm. (49 3/16 x 39 3/8 in.) in original gilt and gesso frame PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Scotland LITERATURE: A. Smart, Allan Ramsay: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings , ed. J. Ingamells, New Haven and London, 1999, no. 497, p. 186, fig. 327 Eldest son of Archibald Campbell of Stonefield, married 1750 Lady Grace Stuart, daughter 2nd Earl of Bute; He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1748, appointed Lord of Session in 1762 and Lord of Justiciary in 1787. Lord Stonefield's assertive gaze and exquisite costume combine to make this portrait one of Ramsay's finest. Although the pose, with Stonefield's right hand on his hip and his left supported by a table, was used often by Ramsay and other contemporary portrait painters here it seems both natural and elegant.

Allan Ramsay (Edinburgh 1713-1784 Dover) Portrait of Sir John Hynde Cotton, 3rd Bt. (died 1752), three-quarter-length, in a burgundy coat and a blue cloak signed 'A. Ramsay/1740' (on ledge, lower right) and inscribed 'Sir John Hinde Cotton. Bart. MP.' (upper left) oil on canvas 123 x 97cm (48 7/16 x 38 3/16in). PROVENANCE: Probably commissioned by Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 3rd Bt. (1692-1749) and by descent to Sir Watkins Williams-Wynn, 8th Bt., his sale, Sotheby's, London, 5 February 1947, lot 52 With Doig, Wilson and Wheatley, Edinburgh, 1948, purchased by Charles Ballantyne and sold in the same year to the 2nd Viscount Weir Sale, Christie's, London, 8 December 1980, lot 374 Sale, Sotheby's, London, 10 July 1985, lot 46, purchased by Colnaghi Sale, Sotheby's, London, 26 March 2004, lot 8 With Richard Green Fine Paintings, London EXHIBITED: London, Royal Academy, Allan Ramsay , 1964, no. 3 London, Colnaghi, The British Face , 1986, no. 25 LITERATURE: A. Smart, The Life and Art of Allan Ramsay (London, 1952), pp. 44, 208, fig. XXXV J. Hayes, 'Allan Ramsay at the Royal Academy', Burlington Magazine , vol. CVI, 1964, pp.190, 193 A. Smart, The Life and Art of Allan Ramsay (London, 1999), no. 104, fig. 39 After leaving Cambridge Cotton entered the House of Commons in 1708 as one of the members for Cambridge, a borough he represented continuously until 1722. Originally tall and handsome, with an imposing figure, epic over-indulgence eventually distorted his figure, such that the legendary size of Cotton's backside offered an irresistible target for satire. In one caricature ministers were depicted preparing to thrust him down the throat of a reluctant monarch, to the accompaniment of such observations as 'his bottom's damn'd broad'. By 1733, with Tory morale low and the party lacking firm leadership, Cotton came to the fore, and was being described as one of 'the leaders of the Tories', even as 'the very head ... of the violent (some will say the Jacobite) party'. Yet it was only in the early 1740s that he took part in Jacobite intrigues and corresponded with the court in exile. Even then his participation in the negotiations for a Jacobite invasion in 1740–45 was marked by extreme caution and he never made any personal commitment. Thus during the Rising of 1745 Cotton managed to keep his place in government and ostentatiously proclaimed his loyalty to the Hanoverian dynasty when the rebellion was over. Nevertheless, he was still dismissed from office a year later and returned to opposition. In view of his slippery political conduct it is ironic that Cotton's funerary monument at Landwade in Cambridgeshire praised his 'integrity and manly conduct', and his successful avoidance of 'faction' and 'invective'; while his obituary in the Gentleman's Magazine stressed his incorruptibility rather than his moderation and emphasized his constancy to 'country' principles: 'he lived, he died a patriot'.

Lot 45 ALLAN RAMSAY (SCOTTISH 1713-1784) PORTRAIT OF THOMAS SHAIRP, 5TH LAIRD OF HOUSTON (D.1772) Signed and dated 1750 bottom right, oil on canvas 76.25cm x 63.5cm (30in x 25in) Estimate £15,000-20,000 Provenance: by family descent to John Shairp (d.1940); Doig, Wilson and Wheatley, Edinburgh; bt. Captain Pringle of Houston; Ian G. Lindsay and thence by descent

Allan Ramsay (Edinburgh 1713-1784 Dover) Three quarter length portrait of John Campbell, Lord Stonefield signed and dated 'A Ramsay/1749' (lower right), inscribed 'LORD STONEFIELD' (lower left) oil on canvas 125 x 100 cm. (49 3/16 x 39 3/8 in.) in original gilt and gesso frame PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Scotland LITERATURE: A. Smart, Allan Ramsay: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings , ed. J. Ingamells, New Haven and London, 1999, no. 497, p. 186, fig. 327 Eldest son of Archibald Campbell of Stonefield, married 1750 Lady Grace Stuart, daughter 2nd Earl of Bute; Lord of Session 1763 as Lord Stonefield. Lord Stonefield's assertive gaze and exquisite costume combine to make this portrait one of Ramsay's finest. Although the pose, with Stonefield's right hand on his hip and his left supported by a table, was used often by Ramsay and other contemporary portrait painters here it seems both natural and elegant.

Allan Ramsay (Edinburgh 1713-1784 Dover) Portrait of a lady, three-quarter-length, in a white satin Van Dyck dress, trimmed with blue bows and lace, beside a column, in a landscape signed and dated 'A. Ramsay 1741' (on the plinth, centre right) oil on canvas 50 1/8 x 40¼ in. (127.3 x 102.2 cm.) in an 18th century carved and gilded frame Mrs. McCalmont, Bushey House, Bushey, Hertfordshire; Christie's, London, 23 January 1920, lot 92 (135 gns.). This unrecorded portrait is entirely characteristic of Ramsay's work in London in the early 1740s. The sitter's Van Dyck costume and pearl necklace can be compared with Ramsay's portraits, also painted in 1741, of Jemima, Countess of Hardwicke (1722-1797; see A. Smart, Allan Ramsay: A Complete catalogue of his paintings, Yale, 1999, p. 235, nos. 77 and 79). 'Van Dyck' costume was fashionable in both society and portraiture in the 1740s and Ramsay, along with other contemporary portraitists, painted a number of his sitters in this vein.