Lord Lorne, Governor General of Canada, was the husband of Princess Louise, the sixth of Queen Victoria's nine children. He was described by a contemporary as 'a right good fellow, and a good Canadian' and was largely responsible for the creation in 1880 of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. The painting was sent to England in 1881 and perhaps reflects Lorne's enjoyment of the Canadian scenery and the climate, a mixture, as he put it, of 'Scotland and Heaven'.

Thomas Martin was educated at the military college of Enfield and in the South Kensington art galleries. He emigrated to Canada in 1862, settling in Toronto. He was president of the first Society of Artists in Canada and director of the Ontario School of Art.

Signed and dated: Mower Martin / 1881. Inscribed on the back with the name of the artist and the title.