This picture was painted in Edinburgh in 1736. Shortly after, Ramsay left for London on the first stage of his journey to Italy where he was to study under Francesco Imperiali and attend the French Academy in Rome. Ramsay’s period of intensive study was to initiate a dramatic transformation in his style. The sittings for this early portrait would have taken place in the house on Castlehill in Edinburgh known as ‘Guse-pye’ (goose pie) which he had recently built for his father and namesake, the poet Allan Ramsay. Katherine Hall, the younger daughter of Sir James Hall, 2^nd Baronet, of Dunglass married in 1743 the poet William Hamilton of Bangour who was a contributor to the Tea-Table Miscellany published by Ramsay senior.