Provenance: Wauchope family of Niddry Doig, Wilson & Wheatley, Edinburgh, 1952
Ian MacNicol, Glasgow, 1956
James Kenneth Weir, 2nd Viscount Weir (1905-1975)
William Kenneth Weir, 3rd Viscount Weir, sold at Christie's, Montgreenan , Ayrshire, 8 December 1980, lot 372
A distinguished private collection, Wiltshire
Exhibited: Talbot Rice Art Centre, University of Edinburgh, 1990-91
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1995-2016
Literature: Scottish Art Review, v. no. 3, (Summer, 1955), frontispiece
A. Smart & R.J. Inganells, "A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings", New Haven and London, 1999, p.79
James Bateman was the second son of Sir James Bateman (c.1660-1718). Sir James was one of the founding directors of the Bank of England and Sub-Governor of the South Sea Company in 1711. He was also a Trustee of the sale of the South Sea Stock between 1714 and 1716, when he became Lord Mayor of London. He left a fortune, reputedly worth £400,000, (with RPI this amounts to some £56,000,000 today) with his two younger sons James and Richard inheriting estates in Tooting, Kent and Essex. James married Anne Chaplin in 1721, daughter of Sir Francis Chaplin who had been expelled from Parliament in 1721 after the collapse of the South Sea Company. Allan Ramsay was in Italy for his second visit between 1754 and 1757, visiting Rome, Florence, Naples and Tivoli. Whilst in Rome he painted the portraits of several Grand Tourists including the present portrait of James who was in Rome with his wife. It was in Rome that Ramsay met up with his fellow Scots, Robert Adam and Gavin Hamilton. Adam, in letters home, referred to Ramsay cheekily as "Old Mumpy" and "Black-beard Allan", but visited the Ramsays regularly. Ramsay painted his portrait in 1755.
