Robert Wood

Inscriptionback to top

Signed and dated along the bottom edge of the table: A. Ramsay. 1755.

This portraitback to top

Robert Adam wrote home about Ramsay from Rome on 2 January 1756, where Wood had joined his small circle of Scottish friends, 'the Caledonian Club', [1] 'As for his painting Cardinals I never heard any thing of it & indeed all he has painted since he left Edin to this day are, His wife, Mr. Wood, Abbé Grant, Mr. Burgoyne & myself, of which the first two only are finish'd, the others half done so that he has properly come to Italy to have the name of it.' [2] Mrs Ramsay is presumably the portrait of the artist's second wife, Margaret Lindsay, National Gallery of Scotland (430); Grant and Robert Adam are missing, as Ramsay's portrait of the latter is now believed to represent his brother James; [3] the Burgoyne is discussed under our copy of it, NPG 4158 (q.v.).

Footnotesback to top

1) Fleming, Robert Adam, p 171.
2) J. Fleming, 'Allan Ramsay and Robert Adam in Italy', Connoisseur, CXXXVII, 1956, p 82.
3) Exhibited 'Paintings and Drawings by Allan Ramsay 1713-84', RA, 1964 (36).

Physical descriptionback to top

Blue eyes, brown eyebrows, fresh complexion, short white wig with queue; white lace cravat and cuffs, russet velvet coat and waistcoat with gold embroidery; his right hand holding a sheet of paper with writing indicated; a map of Greece on table lettered – ILLESPONTO/EVROPA, also a standish, quill and sealing wax; pilaster, background left; lit from the left.

Conservationback to top

Pentimenti in area of the quill and standish, which have been moved down and to the right; paint somewhat darkened and thin, mainly in the jacket and bottom left corner; cleaned, relined and varnished 1972 when a long extract from a biographical dictionary by Bird (?) and Rose, 1850, was removed from the back of the canvas.

Provenanceback to top

Bought 1972 from the sitter's descendant, Robert W. Wood.

Exhibitionsback to top

'British Portraits', RA ,1956 (225); 'Paintings and Drawings by Allan Ramsay', RA, 1964 (38).


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Kerslake, Early Georgian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1977, 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 Allan Ramsay

View all known portraits for Robert Wood