Ena Baxter studied painting and drawing at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen and became an artist and art teacher. In 1952 she married Gordon Baxter and joined his grocery business Baxters, which was founded in 1868. Over 40 years they developed recipes and marketed a range of food products, transforming the company into one of the most internationally acclaimed Scottish businesses. Ena Baxter chose the New York-based Chinese artist Chen Yanning to paint her portrait. On the weighing scales, a tin of Baxters Royal Game soup is being weighed alongside a stoneware preserve jar, a reference to the grocer’s shop where Baxters originated.