Portrait of Laurence Oliphant 7th Laird of Gask. C.1745: Follower of Allan Ramsay.

Oil on canvas in a period frame.

The young Jacobite laird, LAURENCE OLIPHANT (1724 - 1792), depicted within a feigned stone oval, looks out steadfastly at the viewer; he wears a costly velvet coat decorated with gold lace, his tricorne hat tucked under his arm.

He was the son of Laurence Oliphant, 6th Laird of Gask and Hon. Amelia Sophia Oliphant and the brother of Margaret / Amelia Oliphant and Janet MacGregor.

He married Margaret Robertson, and they had children, Laurence Oliphant,who became 8th Lairdof Gask; Marjory Ann Maria Oliphant and Margaret Oliphant.

During the Jacobite Rising of 1745 Laurence was aide de camp to Prince Charles Stuart; at the Battle of Culloden he rode with the Duke of Perth's Horse. On the failure of the attempt to reinstate the Stuarts to the throne Laurence fled to France.

The House of Gask was held until Culloden, after which a volunteer party of English soldiers, under Ensign Fawlie, plundered the house.

The Gask estate was declared forfeit. Laurence Oliphant of Condie first managed the lands for the Forfeit Estates Commission and then leased the estate and then eventually purchased it (not without a certain amount of collusion, as Robert Oliphant of Rossie was on the Commision.) Half of the Gask estate then had to be sold to limit Condie's debt. In his will, Condie only left the life-rents of Gask to the Gask family. In the meantime, Laurence Oliphant, 7th Laird of Gask was duly reinstated.

Gask was sold in the late nineteenth century upon the death of Thomas Kington-Blair-Oliphant at his instruction and all the Oliphant possessions dispersed.

At Gask was born Carolina Oliphant, (later known as Lady Nairn,) the famous Scottish Poetess. She was a masterful writer of poetry, including a lament for the loss of the house of Gask called "The Auld Hoose".

This portrait passed through the family from the 18th century until this year; the vendor's maternal grandmother, from whom came this portrait, was of the family Hey of Leys, a cadet branch of the Earls of Errol. During this latter time the sitter was mistakenly called John, Lord Oliphant, as a label verso shows.

A faint inscription reads 'Taken from ........ Hall, above fireplace'.

ALLAN RAMSAY 1713–1784.

Ramsay was born in Edinburgh; he studied in London at St Martin's Lane Academy and at Hans Hysing's studio, before going to Italy to study. On his return he settled in London, although he continued to be active in Edinburgh, painting many of the Scottish nobility. Between 1754 and 1757 he was in Italy, mostly in Rome. During his prime period he had a virtual monopoly on court painting. He became the official painter to George III in 1760, and Principal Painter-in-Ordinary in 1767. His assistants included David Martin, Alexander Nasmyth and Philip Reinagle.

SIZE: 37.5 x 32.5 inches including the frame.

PROVENANCE: by descent through the family until now.