Allan Ramsay (October 13, 1713 - August 10, 1784), Scottish portrait-painter, the eldest son of the author of The Gentle Shepherd, was born at Edinburgh.

Ramsay manifested an aptitude for art from an early period, and at the age of twenty we find him in London studying under the Swedish painter Hans Huyssing, and at the St Martin's Lane Academy; and in 1736 he left for Rome, where he worked for three years under Solimena and Imperiali (Fernandi). On his return he settled in Edinburgh; and, having attracted attention by his head of Forbes of Culloden and his full-length of the duke of Argyll, he removed to London, where he was patronized by the duke of Bridgewater. His pleasant manners and varied culture, not less than hi...