After studying at the Royal Academy Schools in London, Geddes returned temporarily to his native Edinburgh where he built up a portrait practice in York Place in close proximity to the studios of Henry Raeburn and Alexander Nasmyth. Working both in cabinet and full-scale format, Geddes acquired a reputation for his distinctive ‘small whole-lengths’. When Geddes made a definitive move to London, he painted Andrew Plimer, a successful and prolific miniaturist. His guiding inspiration for this portrait was Rembrandt and, quite specifically, Rembrandt’s dramatically side-lit etched Self-Portrait at the Window Drawing on an Etching Plate, executed in 1648. Andrew Plimer also sat for a second half-length but life-size portrait in oils.