David Allan

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 4 July 2001, lot 46, for £30,000 (as attributed to Hugh Douglas Hamilton);

Private collection;

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 16 June 2005, lot 239 (as circle of Hugh Douglas Hamilton), where unsold;

Acquired post-sale by the present owner.

J. Ingamells, Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760–1790, London 2004, p. 234 (under doubtful identified portraits of Sir William Hamilton).

When sold in 2001 this portrait was identified as a likeness of the antiquarian and diplomat Sir William Hamilton KB, PC, FRS, FRSE (1730–1803). Sir William was one of the most accomplished men of the late eighteenth century, and can be counted amongst one of the greatest collectors and patrons of his generation. This traditional identification, however, has since been placed into doubt, despite the passing resemblance found here to other portraits of Sir William. The reason for this doubt is mostly due to the fact that the portrait depicts the sitter without any of the regalia and trappings relating to his membership of the Order of the Bath, an honour he was awarded in 1772 and was subsequently painted with on almost every occasion thereafter.

It is perhaps due to the resemblance of the man in this portrait to Hugh Douglas Hamilton's portrait of Sir William Hamilton, now in a private collection, which warranted this painting's previous association with H.D. Hamilton.¹ However, the authorship of this painting has now been convincingly reattributed to the Scottish artist David Allan (1744–1796), whose portrayals of figures in particularly austere interiors are highly comparable to the present work.² Having begun his career as an engraver in Glasgow, Allan eventually journeyed to Italy where he began to produce History paintings mostly based on classical subjects. By 1777 the painter was back in London and later returned to Scotland where he continued to paint scenes inspired by the peoples, history and stories of Scotland alongside more lucrative work as a portraitist. His attention to Scottish themes and tales later earnt him the nickname of the 'Scots Hogarth', despite their being a lack of satire or moralising in his work. In 1786 Allan's fame was such that he was appointed Master of the Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh, a position he held until his death a decade later (ODNB).

It is possible that this portrait depicts a member of the book trade, which may explain the prominence given to a vast set of shelves containing multiple volumes next to the sitter. The sphere of booksellers was one which Allan had participated in since his apprenticeship to the printer Robert Foulis of Glasgow during his youth. This work continued after his return from Italy, and his later celebrated illustrations for books included Allan Ramsay’s Gentle Shepherd (1788) and James Macpherson’s Ossian (1795).

¹ I. Jenkins and K. Sloan, Vases & Volcanoes: Sir William Hamilton and his Collection, exh. cat., London 1996, p. 264, no. 163, reproduced in colour.

² This attribution was noted by Brian Allen on an annotated card in the Paul Mellon Centre photographic archive, London.