David Allan
David Allan - A Famous Scottish Painter
David Allan (1744 - 1796) After studying at the Glasgow Academy, David Allan left for Italy in 1764, spending nearly 14 years there, mainly in Rome. His humerous bent is shown in four drawings made at this time of the Roman carnival. These were later used for etchings by Paul Sandby. Allan tried to establish himself as a portrait in London in 1777, but returned to Edinburgh in 1780 where he died.
There is a self portrait by David Allan in the National Gallery of Scotland at Edinburgh. Among his sitters was Sir William Hamilton, the diplomat and antiquarian and husband of Nelson's mistress. Allan's genre pictures of Scottish life were more popular and original, and in this field he was a forerunner of Sir David Wilkie.
David Allan has been nicknamed "the Scottish Hogarth", but although his natural droll humour and sense of caricature earned him the nickname, he is not the rival of Hogarth either in ability or in savagery of social comment on the conditions of his age.
The Self Taught Painter by David Allan (click to enlarge).
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