A friend of the writer, Sir Walter Scott, Mackenzie was nicknamed 'The Man of Feeling' after the title of his own sensationally successful first novel, published in 1771. He was also responsible for producing the periodicals 'The Lounger' and 'The Mirror' and was one of the first to recognise the talent of Robert Burns. This bust is a remarkable and unusual study of the physical decline of old age, the rigid marble suggesting the soft texture of slack skin.