Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 47.djvu/234

 1. ‘Defence of the Parochial Schools of Scotland,’ Edinburgh, 1854, 8vo. 2. ‘The Nooks and Byways of Italy. Wanderings in Search of its Ancient Remains and Modern Superstitions,’ Liverpool, 1868, 8vo. 3. ‘Drumlanrig Castle and the Douglases: with the Early History and Ancient Remains of Durisdeer, Closeburn, and Morton,’ Dumfries, 1876, 8vo. 4. ‘Bible Echoes in Ancient Classics,’ Edinburgh, 1878, 8vo.

[Private information.]  RAMBERG, JOHANN HEINRICH (1763–1840), historical and portrait painter, draughtsman, and engraver, was born at Hanover on 22 July 1763. His father, who was war secretary of the electorate and a lover of art, encouraged his son's early talent. In 1781 he came to England and was introduced to George III, for whom he made many humorous sketches and caricatures. The king brought him under the notice of Benjamin West, and he was admitted into the schools of the Royal Academy, where, in 1784, he gained a silver medal for drawing from the life. He began to exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1782, when he sent five drawings: ‘St. James's Park,’ ‘The Embarkment’ (engraved by Edmund Scott), ‘Good News’ (engraved by John Ogborne), ‘Bad News,’ and a ‘Review of Soldiers.’ In 1784 he exhibited three pictures: ‘The Death of Captain Cook,’ ‘The Soldier's Return’ (engraved by William Pether), and ‘The Blind Veteran.’ ‘The Sailor's Farewell’ in 1785, a drawing of ‘Queen Margaret of Anjou landing at Weymouth after the Battle of Tewkesbury’ in 1787, and ‘Whitsuntide Holidays’ and two other drawings in 1788 complete the list of his exhibited works. About this time he painted ‘The Exhibition of the Royal Academy 1787,’ and ‘Portraits of their Majesties and the Royal Family viewing the Exhibition of the Royal Academy 1788,’ both of which were engraved in line by P. A. Martini. In 1788, by the help of his royal patron, he visited the Netherlands, and afterwards Germany and Italy, returning to Hanover in 1792, when he was appointed electoral court painter. In 1789 he painted the curtain for the court theatre in Hanover, which he himself etched in 1828, and while in Dresden in 1790–1 he painted, for the decoration of Carlton House, ‘Alexander crossing the Granicus.’ Besides the above works may be noted ‘Olivia, Maria, and Malvolio’ from ‘Twelfth Night,’ engraved by Thomas Ryder for Boydell's ‘Shakespeare;’ ‘The Goldfinches,’ in illustration of Jago's elegy, for Macklin's ‘British Poets;’ ‘Public Amusement’ and ‘Private Amusement,’ engraved by William Ward; ‘Laura, or Thoughts on Matrimony,’ engraved by Henry Kingsbury; ‘The Departure of Queen Marie-Antoinette and her Family,’ engraved by J. F. Bolt; the Princess Mary, engraved by William Nutter; the Princess Elizabeth, engraved by W. Ward; the Princess Sophia, engraved by J. Ogborne; and a portrait of Baron Denon, which was etched by Denon himself. His work as a draughtsman for the German almanacs and pocket-books extended over a period of more than twenty years, but his best illustrations are those which he himself etched for ‘Reineke Fuchs’ and ‘Tyll Eulenspiegel,’ both published in 1826. He made, from sketches by the Princess Elizabeth, Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg, a series of twenty allegorical designs entitled ‘Genius, Imagination, Phantasie,’ which were lithographed by Julius Giere, and published at Hanover in 1834.

Ramberg died at Hanover on 6 July 1840, and was buried in the Gartenkirchhof. There are two portraits of him—one an etching by Denon, taken at Venice in 1791; the other, a lithograph by Julius Giere, drawn in 1838.

[Johann Heinrich Ramberg in seinen Werken dargestellt von J. C. C. Hoffmeister, Hanover, 1877; Nagler's Künstler-Lexicon, 1835–52, xii. 275–8; Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, 1875, &c., xxv. 207; Preussische Jahrbücher, 1870 (art. by A. Conze), xxvi. 83–103; Royal Academy Exhibition Catalogues, 1782–88.]  RAMESAY, WILLIAM (fl. 1660), astrologer. [See ]  RAMKINS, ALEXANDER (1672–1719?), adherent of James II, was born in the north of Scotland in 1672, and was sent to the university of Aberdeen. While a student there he heard of the gathering of several clans for James VII, sold his books and furniture, bought arms, and at the end of July 1689 joined a body of three hundred highlanders who had been on the victorious side at Killiecrankie. He marched about with them in the highlands for a time, and then went home to his mother with an old captain of James's army. After two months at home, having obtained 1,200l. as the value of his inheritance, he sailed to Rotterdam and joined the French army at the siege of Mainz. He found it difficult to get employment without regular training, so went to the French military college for cadets at Strasburg, and, afterwards returning to the army, was admitted as a volunteer and served in the Palatinate. He thence obtained leave to go to Paris, and, receiving a commission as