In Alison Watt: A Portrait without Likeness, Greenock-born artist Alison Watt is, for the first time, showcasing new works painted in response to the celebrated 18th-century Scottish portrait artist Allan Ramsay (1713-84), exploring her continuing fascination with his portraits, in particular the intensely personal images of his first and second wives, Margaret Lindsay and Anne Bayne. Best-known for her beautiful large-scale paintings of drapery and folds, Alison is a long-time admirer Ramsay’s portraits, and his portraits of these women, resident in the Gallery’s collection, will be on show alongside new work by Watt, who has researched extensively into the Gallery’s archive of Ramsay’s drawings and sketchbooks.

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication featuring conversations between the artist and Julie Lawson, the Chief Curator of European, Scottish Art and Portraiture at National Galleries of Scotland, who has curated the exhibition.