McTaggart’s son-in-law and first biographer Sir James Lewis Caw mistakenly described the subject of this appealing picture as Little Red Riding Hood, the heroine of the European children’s tale which had been popular in Britain since the early eighteenth century. Caw’s misleading interpretation was actually a perceptive response to the haunting sentiment of the composition. This reflects McTaggart’s fascination with similar pictures by Millais and other members of the Pre-Raphaelite circle painted during the 1850s. Throughout the 1860s McTaggart continued to explore the many possibilities offered by the subject of children in a landscape. The picture was bought from the Royal Scottish Academy exhibition of 1869 by a “Mr Keiller of Dundee”. This was likely to be Alexander Keiller, head of the family confectionery firm which made the world famous Keiller’s Dundee marmalade.