Allan Ramsay. A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings

This is the first complete catalogue of oil paintings by Allan Ramsay (1713-84), whose career spanned the period in which British art established a national identity. Ramsay was a well-educated Scotsman familiar with contemporary Italian and French portraiture, and his mature portraits, with their delicate coloring and subtle characterization, provide a most elegant episode in the history of British art. More than six hundred portraits are catalogued in detail. Each is illustrated in black and white in a chronological sequence indicating, with the forty-eight color plates and selected relevant drawings, the full range of Ramsay's art. There is an introductory essay and biographical summary, a chronological list of portraits, statistical surveys of Ramsay's production and prices, and indexes of engravers and of sales. Alastair Smart (1922-92) worked for forty years gathering material for this volume, but it was incomplete at his death. John Ingamells has edited Smart's extensive notes and added subsequent material.