Lord Drunmore, Sir Hew Dalrymple

This portrait is one of the finest Ramsay ever painted. Its exquisite measure of values presages the classical developments in painting towards the end of the century in a quite remarkable way. It is therefore not only a landmark in Scottish painting, but in European art. Lord Drunmore was a member of that extraordinary dynasty of Scottish lawyers, the Dalrymples. He himself was a seated judge and in 1745 became a Lord Justiciary. According to his fellow-judge, Lord Woodhouselee, he was 'an acute and sound lawyer and possessed of a ready, distinct and forcible, though not a polished elocution'. This work was acquired with assistance from the Wolfson Foundation.