Grieve once mused that his life was one of ‘creating and re-creating environment’. Before becoming Scotland’s Chief Planning Officer in the 1960s, he helped develop the Clyde Valley Regional Plan (1944-46), which aimed to regenerate the west of Scotland and recommended new towns to alleviate overcrowding in Glasgow’s housing. In 1965 he became the first chair of the Highlands and Islands Development Board, which aimed to revitalise the north of Scotland. This portrait was commissioned from Scotland’s then leading portrait sculptor, the Estonian-born Jewish artist Benno Schotz, on Grieve’s retirement from the Board.