Allan Ramsay 1713-1784

This beautiful portrait was executed during the artist's third visit to Italy between 1775 and 1777. It is part of a small group of red chalk drawings all dating from 1776, which include a fine late self portrait (National Portrait Gallery, London), his sensitive portrait of his wife Margaret (National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh) and two portraits of his young daughter Amelia (Huntington Library and Art Gallery and National Gallery of Scotland).

In March 1773 Ramsay suffered a serious fall which ended his career as a painter, though by this time he had already almost retired, devoting himself largely to literary pursuits. Undeterred he travelled later in the year to Edinburgh and then in the autumn went out to Geneva with Rachel Hamilton. However his rheumatic pains grew worse, and having failed to alleviate them by taking the waters at Buxton he decided to take his family out to Rome the next year. He left in August 1775 with his wife and their daughter Amelia, and after a few days in Paris he reached Rome where he sat for the Irish sculptor Michael Foye for his celebrated bust (Scottish National Gallery) and busied himself with scholarly pursuits. By the summer of the next year however, he was determined to alleviate the recurring pain from his accident and so the family travelled to the Island of Ischia where they spent the months of July and August. Frances Leveson Gower wrote to Amelia that 'I hope Mr Ramsay will find all the benefit bathing can give, return to this country well in health, and the party stored with an endless fund of entertainment'. Her wish appears to have been granted since Ramsay found a temporary relief from his ailments and was able to work with renewed vigour on the small group of red chalk drawings. In Alastair Smart's words: 'All these studies, together with another of "a country girl", exhibited a love of drawing for its own sake'. (Alastair Smart, Allan Ramsay, 1992, p. 247).

This drawing from his stay in Ischia was executed at Surrentum which is situated on the north side of the promontory and forms the south-east extremity of the Bay of Naples.