Studio of Allan Ramsay (British, 1713-1784) Portrait of a mother an her child Oil on canvas 50-1/2 x 40-1/4 inches (128.3 x 102.2 cm) PROVENANCE: Estate of a gentleman, Highland Park, Texas; Private collection, Dallas, purchased from the above in 2019. We are grateful to British art specialist Brian Allen for examining the present work through high resolution photographs and generously sharing the following thoughts on its authorship: "Although the drapery painting is superficially close to Ramsay's work of the mid-1750s and early 1760s, it is rather tighter and more polished than Ramsay's work becomes after the death in 1749 of his most prolific drapery painter, Joseph Van Aken. Also, the face of the woman in particular lacks the subtlety that one would expect and regularly sees in works by Ramsay of this date. A comparison with the celebrated portrait of his wife Margaret Lindsay (in the National Gallery of Scotland) is especially revealing in this context. That said, whoever painted this work must have been very familiar with Ramsay and begs the question who did paint it? His most talented pupil was David Martin (1737-1797) but although Martin travelled to Italy with Ramsay in the mid-50s, he didn't join Ramsay's studio until the early 1760s. It is just possible that this work could be by Martin, but I cannot make that attribution with any real confidence." HID03101062020 © 2020 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved