National Galleries of Scotland

This portrait of a Highland laird, and its companion, mark a remarkable act of artistic patronage in 17th-century Scotland. In 1633 Sir Colin Campbell commissioned an artist to supply him with a series of portraits of Scottish kings and queens as well as portraits of eight of his own male predecessors. These, totalling forty-one, were for the decoration of his house of Balloch (later Taymouth Castle) and in the records of the house the painter, who stayed for eight months, is simply referred to as 'the German painter'.