,
was apprenticed in 1612 to one John Andersone "paynter" in Edinburgh,
whose decoration in Gordon Castle is mentioned by an old chronicler.
As might be expected in the circumstances the "Scottish Van Dyck," as
he is fondly called, was a portrait-painter. He was followed by a few
others, such as the Scougall family, Aikman Marshall, Wait, and the two
Alexanders, who, although neither so accomplished nor so much
appreciated as their precursor, form a never quite broken succession of
portraitists between him and Allan Ramsay (1713-84) in whose work art
in Scotland took a great step forward.[1] A few of Ramsay's
predecessors had succeeded in supplementing the meagre instruction--if
any thing that existed could be dignified by that name--to be obtained
in Scotland by a visit to the Low Countries or Italy, but Ramsay was
the first to obtain a sound technical training. The author of "The
Gentle Shepherd," to whom Edinburgh was indebted for its first
circulating library and its first play-house, encouraged his son's bent
for art, and after some preliminary study in London, Allan _fils_ was
sent to "The seat of the Beast" beyond the Alps, where he became a
pupil of Solimena and Imperiale and of the French Academy. Formed
under these influences, his style possesses no clearly marked national
trait, except it be the feeling for character which informs his finer
work and makes it, in a way, a link between that of Jamesone and that
of Raeburn. To this he added a delicate sense of tone and a tenderness
of colour and lighting, a gracefulness of drawing and a refined
accomplishment which were new in Scottish painting. His turn for charm
of pose and grace of motive was pronounced, and his portraitures mirror
very happily the mannered yet elegant social airs of the mid-eighteenth
century. More than that of any English painter of his day, his art
possesses "French elegance."

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PLATE III.--MRS LAUZUN. (National Gallery.)

Only one of the three Raeburns in the National Gallery is an adequate
example. This is the picture reproduced. It was painted in 1795, and,
while very typical technically, possesses greater charm than most of
the portraits of women executed by him at that comparatively early date.

[Illustration: Plate III.]

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Ramsay's activity as a painter coincided with a remarkable