This self-portrait shows Scottish artist David Foggie. It was made three years before his death, at a time when Foggie had retired as a teacher at Edinburgh College of Art but was still active as Secretary of the Royal Scottish Academy. As a teacher of Life Drawing, Foggie had always stressed the importance of accomplished and accurate drawing skills and this quality can be found in many of his own portrait drawings. A number of these were donated to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery by his wife Margaret (Mary) in 1955 and 1962. After her death in 1975, this self-portrait was gifted to the galleries by Foggie’s son Angus. Its sincere portrayal and modest style would have been appreciated in the 1920s and ‘30s, but by the 1940s they were seen as rather old-fashioned.