This is a fascinating example of the interior ‘conversation pieces’ or informal group portraits in which Allan specialised from 1780. His middle-class patrons John Caw, a founder member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, John Bonar and James Bruce were all Edinburgh tax officials. Caw’s deceased nephew Thomas, a physician, is associated with this group through his portrait on the back wall. Bruce is shown discussing an engraving after Raphael’s Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness (Uffizi, Florence).