The McEwens maintained estates and a country house in the Scottish Borders at Bardrochat in Ayrshire. The Marchmont estate in Berwickshire was acquired from the Home family in 1913, by the sitter’s husband, Robert Finnie McEwen. McEwen was a lover of the arts and a gifted musician who offered financial support to composers. Both his houses, Bardrochat and Marchmont, were remodelled by the distinguished Scots Arts and Crafts architect, Sir Robert Lorrimer. McEwen and his wife had four children – two sons and two daughters. The youngest daughter, Elizabeth Jeannet Mary, (b.1902) on the left of the picture, died in 1913. Her sister Katharine Isobel, (b.1900) married Roger Lawrence Lumley, 11th Earl of Scarborough, a Foreign Secretary in the inter-war period and Lord Chamberlain at the time of the accession of Queen Elizabeth ii. Katharine served the Queen Mother as Lady-in-Waiting and was a recipient of the Royal Victorian Order in 1962.
References
McConkey, Kenneth. Lavery and the Glasgow Boys. Exhibition Catalogue. Clandeboye, County Down: The Ava Gallery; Edinburgh: Bourne Fine Art; London: The Fine Art Society, 2010. No. 23.
Last modified 4 October 2011