This is a list of the artworks from our collection currently on display at each Gallery.
Works are moved from view for many different reasons. Although this page is updated regularly, we cannot guarantee that the pieces listed here will be on display when you visit.
William Aikman
Allan Ramsay, 1684 - 1758. Poet1722On Display
Allan Ramsay began his career in Edinburgh as a wigmaker; he went on to become a bookseller, successful poet and an important member of Edinburgh's literary and artistic circles. He was a close friend of the artist, William Aikman, and this portrait was owned by another friend, Sir John Clerk of Penicuik. Clerk wrote on the back of the canvas, imitating Ramsay's verse: 'Here painted on this canvas clout by Aikman's hand is Ramsay's snout'.
- Accession no. PG 973
- Medium Oil on canvas
- Size 75.70 x 64.00 cm
- Credit Purchased 1924
- Subjects [2]
- Scottish literature
- Writing and literature
William Aikman (Scottish, 1682 - 1731)
The son and heir of an Angus laird, Aikman sold his estates to finance his training as a painter. He studied with Sir John de Medina in Edinburgh before travelling to London in 1704. In 1707 he left for Italy, where he may have worked with Carlo Maratta. He also visited Turkey. Aikman returned to Edinburgh in 1711 after Medina's death and became the leading portrait painter in Scotland. By 1723, in search of new commissions and wider acclaim, Aikman moved to London. The Scottish nobility resident in London after the Act of Union of 1707 formed a large part of his clientele but he was also part of Lord Burlington's circle.