Alexander Nasmyth (9 September 1758 - 10 April 1840) was a Scottish portrait and landscape painter, a pupil of Allan Ramsay.
Nasmyth was born in Edinburgh on 9 September 1758. He studied at the Royal High School and the Trustees’ Academy and was apprenticed to a coachbuilder. Aged sixteen, he was taken to London by portrait painter Allan Ramsay where he worked on subordinate parts of Ramsay's works.[1] Nasmyth returned to Edinburgh in 1778, where he worked as a portrait painter. Offered a loan by Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, Nasmyth left in 1782 for Italy, where he remained two years furthering his studies.In Italy he devoted most of his attention to landscape painting, and is recorded as having copied a work by Claude.