This is one of Raeburn's best-loved portraits, but virtually nothing is known of Margaritta MacDonald's personality or life. She married Robert Scott Moncrieff, an Edinburgh wine-merchant and friend of Sir Walter Scott. She died in 1824 and her husband survived her for thirty years. During this time he kept her portrait permanently in his dining-room, and never remarried. The dating of the picture is a guess, based on stylistic grounds. In the last decade of his life Raeburn changed his style, partly influenced by Rembrandt's art, and worked in a more rounded manner, presenting forms in deliberate soft focus.
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