Male nude in profile, 1739

Allan Ramsay (1713 - 1784)

RA Collection: Art

A red chalk life drawing of a male nude standing in profile by the Scottish portraitist Allan Ramsay which is in very bad condition.

Ramsay enrolled at the recently founded St. Martin's Lane Academy when he settled in London in August 1738, setting up his studio in the Covent Garden piazza. Given that he had already worked as a painter in Italy, Ramsay's interest in St. Martin's Lane possibly stemmed from a need to establish himself in the London art world rather than indicating a particular interest in life drawing. Indeed, George Vertue claimed that Ramsay's studies from the life class did not demonstrate 'any great skill' and were less accomplished than those of 'many other young scholars'.

However, it is also possible that Ramsay continued to attend life classes because he felt that his drawing was deficient in this area. During his second visit to Italy between 1754-1757 Ramsay produced a considerable group of life drawings, both at the French Academy and at Laurent Pécheux's class at Sta. Trinità del Monte. Although his studies for portraits - including details of hands and costumes - are highly accomplished, Ramsay's contemporaries scoffed at his life drawings. One wrote that Ramsay 'drew such figures as everyone laughed at', while his compatriot Robert Adam claimed that the artist 'knew less about the proportions of the human figure than any young boy about Rome' (see Smart, p. 118-119). Nevertheless, as with this example, many of Ramsay's life drawings appear to be fairly competent.

The provenance of this drawing is not recorded and it is possible that it was part of a group of early life drawings by artists associated with the St. Martin's Lane Academy, including Francis Hayman and George Michael Moser, that were transferred to the Royal Academy during its early years. Althernatively, it could have been part of the Stretton Bequest which features many works by the Reinagle family. Philip Reinagle was taught by Allan Ramsay.



Related Objects:

There is a sizeable collection of Ramsay's life drawings in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh. These date from the 1730s - 1750s.

Further reading:

I. Bignamini and M. Postle, The Artist's Model from Lely to Etty, exhib. cat, Nottingham, 1991, cat. no. 51, p. 71

Alastair Smart, Allan Ramsay, Painter, Essayist and Man of the Enlightenment, New Haven and London, 1992, pp. 41, 60, 118-119