James Andrew Broun Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie

Inscriptionback to top

Signed and dated (bottom left): J. Watson Gordon ARA Pinx 1847

This portraitback to top

An oil study for this portrait is in the collection of Captain Colin Broun-Lindsay, Colstoun. The robes on the table appear to be those of the lord clerk register of Scotland. Gordon painted Dalhousie in these robes in another full-length portrait of the same year (see no.2 below). A copy of NPG 188 by George Sephton of 1905 is in the India Office, London, and a reduced copy by E. Dyer is in the Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta. Other paintings of Dalhousie by Gordon are as follows:
1 c.1835. (Full-length, in the uniform of the Royal Company of Archers). Archers' Hall, Edinburgh. Exhibited RA, 1835 (25). Reproduced Ian Hay, The Royal Company of Archers (1951), facing p 25. An oil study was sold Lyon and Turnbull, Edinburgh, 17 April 1963 (lot 571). A pencil study is in the Scottish NPG.
2 1847. (Full-length, in the robes of the lord clerk register of Scotland). Collection of Captain Colin Broun-Lindsay. Reproduced Private Letters of the Marquess of Dalhousie, edited J. G. A. Baird (1910), frontispiece. Exhibited SKM, 1868 (465). Similar in pose to NPG 188.
3 c.1858. (Full-length, seated on a throne). Legislative Council Chamber, Calcutta. Exhibited RA, 1858 (125). Engraved by G. Stodart, published J. S. Virtue (example in NPG). Two oil studies are in the Scottish NPG, and the collection of Captain Colin Broun-Lindsay, Colstoun. A copy by Clark is in the collection of the Earl of Bradford.
4 Two undated paintings were in the Gordon sale, Dowell of Edinburgh, 11 January 1896 (lots 93 and 100).

Physical descriptionback to top

Brown eyes, brown hair and whiskers. Dressed in a white shirt, dark stock, black coat, grey trousers, holding a black top-hat. Light brown floor. Yellow/ gold figured curtain at left. Rest of wall brown. Wooden table at right, with red volume leaning against it, black and gold robes on it, and gilt and glass inkstand. Landscape behind green and bluish-grey. Orange and blue sky.

Provenanceback to top

Presented by the artist's brother, H. G. Watson, 1865.

Exhibitionsback to top

RA, 1847 (63).


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Ormond, Early Victorian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1973, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

View all known portraits for James Andrew Broun Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie