Frederic Leighton trained in Frankfurt, Paris, and Rome, only settling in London in 1859, where he helped introduce Continental ideas about aestheticism and "art for art’s sake." He became president of
the Royal Academy in 1878. Leighton was selective about painting portraits but was sympathetic to Ellinor Guthrie (1838–1911), the daughter of James Stirling, the first governor of Western Australia. Born in Perth
but raised partly in England, Ellinor married the Scottish merchant banker James Alexander Guthrie in 1856. The Guthries lived in the fashionable and affluent Portland Place in London, and, between 1857 and 1868,
they had nine children. Sittings for this portrait took place after Ellinor had recovered from the birth of her fifth daughter in October 1864. In April 1865 she went into mourning when her father died, which may
explain her somber, though luxurious, black dress.
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