About this artwork

The philosopher and historian David Hume is regarded as one of the most important thinkers of the Enlightenment. This eighteenth-century movement sought to reform the intolerant societies of the past by fostering more open and progressive values. Hume’s philosophy criticised many conventional beliefs, helping pave the way for a more pluralistic and tolerant world. Nevertheless, his views of other nations and racial groups still showed the prejudices of his times. He wrote of the ‘cowardice’ and ‘slavish disposition’ of contemporary Italians. Recently, critics have drawn attention to his even more discriminatory attitudes towards Black Africans, whom he described as ‘naturally inferior to the whites’. Ramsay’s portrait of Hume gives no hint of this dismissive mentality but presents him as a self-confident ‘cosmopolitan’, whose experiences extended far beyond the confines of his own country.

Updated 2021

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Allan Ramsay

Allan Ramsay