Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 19th Century.
Whoever the artist was, and there is a Scottish 'feel' to the portrait, he was talented. There is a real feel of the character of the sitter and a painterly delight in the use of the medium which brilliantly conveys the different texture of flesh and the clothing of the sitter.
Margaret Flint (1786-1873) married Ebenezer Ramsay, Procurator Fiscal of Clackmannanshire, who lived at Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland. He was born in 1785 and died in 1846. They had ten children, of whom three died young. Margaret, number nine of the ten, married John Vanderstegen Drake in 1850. They had five children.
Ebenezer and Margaret also had a son, Thomas, who married Jane Mitchell. Thomas and Jane were the parents of Sir William Mitchell Ramsay, a very distinguished scholar and university professor, who "followed in the footsteps of St. Paul", and correctly identified many yo yhr places mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. His wife Agnes Marshall went with him to Asia Minorwhere some of their children were born.
(Our thanks to Janna Ramsay Best for much information.)
This portrait, with others, hung in the dining room of Abbotswood, a large manor house near Stow on the Wold. dating from the 13th century but largely rebuilt by Lutyens. (Image 4).
From 1970 it was owned by the famous racehorse owner and breeder Robin Scully, who bred 125 winners. Margaret was Robin Scully's Great-Great-Grandmother. All Scully's relatives live in Nebraska, so house, 775 acre estate and contents were sold recently.
SIZE: 51 x 41.25 inches inc. frame.
PROVENANCE: By unbroken descent in the family of the sitter.
Roy Precious - Antiques & Fine Art has dated this piece to the 19th Century.
Roy and nadine precious: specialists in portraiture from the 16th to the 20th century. Established in 1972.
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Portrait of Margaret Ramsay C.1830; British School.
