This dramatic portrait shows the printmaker James McBey. Despite a poverty-stricken childhood in the north of Scotland, McBey embarked on an artistic career which made him internationally successful. Almost entirely self-taught as an artist, his work helped to revive the practice of etching in Britain during the early Twentieth Century. Adventurous by nature, McBey travelled widely in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Central and North America. He worked as a war artist in France and Egypt during the First World War. Lumsden’s portrait suggests something of the sitter’s strong personality. He has captured McBey’s striking features and intense gaze, depicting him in the process of working.