Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ramsay, James (1786-1854)
RAMSAY, JAMES (1786–1854), portrait-painter, was born in 1786. His name first appears in the catalogue of the Royal Academy exhibition for 1803, when he sent a portrait of himself. Three years later he exhibited a portrait of Henry Grattan, and in 1810 one of John Towneley. In 1811 his contributions included portraits of the Earl of Moira and Lord Cochrane, and in 1813 that of Lord Brougham, whom he again painted in 1818. In 1814 he sent to the academy two scriptural subjects, ‘Peter denying Christ’ and ‘Peter's Repentance,’ and in 1819 views of Tynemouth Abbey and of North and South Shields, but his works were mainly portraits. There are at least three by him of Thomas Bewick, the engraver; the earliest, exhibited in 1816, and engraved by John Burnet, is now in the museum of the Newcastle Natural History Society; another, which appeared at the Royal Academy in 1823, is now in the National Portrait Gallery; and a third, a small full-length, which was engraved by Frederick Bacon, belonged to Robert Stirling Newall [q. v.] of Gateshead. A portrait by him of Charles, second earl Grey, painted for the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and now in the town-hall, was exhibited in 1837, together with that of Dr. Thomas Elliotson, now belonging to the Royal College of Physicians. His portrait of Henry Grattan, now in the possession of the Grattan family, was engraved in mezzotint by Charles Turner, A.R.A., and a copy of it by Sir Thomas Alfred Jones is in the National Gallery of Ireland. He likewise exhibited some scriptural, historical, and fancy subjects at the British Institution, including ‘Isaac blessing Jacob,’ in 1813, ‘The Trial of King Charles the First,’ in 1829, and ‘The Entry of the Black Prince into London,’ in 1841; and also a few portraits at the Society of British Artists.
About 1847 Ramsay left London for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with which town he appears to have been connected, possibly by birth, but he continued to exhibit at the Royal Academy, where he had another portrait of himself in 1849. He practised his art with success, and painted portraits of several members of Lord Clifford's family, James Northcote, R.A., Dr. Lardner, and many others. He died, after a protracted illness, at 40 Blackett Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on 23 June 1854, aged 68.
[Newcastle Journal, 24 June 1854; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of the English School, 1878; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers, ed. Graves and Armstrong, 1886–9, ii. 346; Royal Academy Exhibition Catalogues, 1803–54; British Institution Exhibition Catalogues (Living Artists), 1807–41; Society of British Artists Exhibition Catalogues, 1824–43.]