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- David Allan
- Also known as
-
David Allan
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primary name: Allan, David
- Details
- individual; British; Male
- Life dates
- 1744-1796
- Biography
- Portrait, genre and history painter; called the 'Scottish Hogarth'. B. Alloa (Stirlingshire); apprenticed to the printer Foulis in Glasgow from 1755-62; in Italy 1767-77 producing history paintings; won gold medal of Concorso Balestra from Accademia di S. Luca, Rome; in Naples in 1775 painting genre scenes, watercolouring and etching; in London from 1777-80 as portrait painter, then settled in Edinburgh producing painted cabinet portraits and family conversation pieces, as well as drawings and aquatints; succeeded Runciman as director of the Trustees' Academy in 1786 until his death; engraved illustrations for Allan Ramsay's "The Gentle Shepherd" 1788. Made humorous compositions of Scottish character. His portrait of Sir William Hamilton is in the Board Room (see Ian Jenkins & Kim Sloan, 'Vases and Volcanoes', BM 1996, cat.1)
- Bibliography
- DNB
Ingamells
T. Crouther-Gordon, David Allan of Alloa 1744–1795:The Scottish Hogarth (Alva,1951).
Basil Skinner, 'The Indefatigable Mr Allan', Scottish Arts Council exh., Dundee, 1973
Nel Whiting, 'Gender and National Identity in David Allan's small, domestic and conversation paintings', in Journal of Scottish HIstorical Studies, 34.1, 2014, 20-39, Edin U P, 2014