The model for this bust was Ada Mary Barclay, daughter of the Perth-born society portraitist John Maclaren Barclay (1811-1886). Ada herself later became a picture restorer and painter of landscapes and portraits, exhibiting at the Royal Scottish Academy from 1879 to 1886 before moving to India. Brodie, who showed this bust at the Academy in 1870, was the most prolific Scottish portrait and monumental sculptor of the period..