Elizabeth, Duchess of Buccleuch (1743-1827) was the daughter of George, 1st Duke of Montagu. On 2 May 1767, she married Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch (1746–1812) at St George's Church, Hanover Square, London, by special licence as her husband was still a minor. Henry's stepfather died suddenly, and he inherited the dukedom on his 21st birthday (13 September 1767).

The identity of the artist is unknown, but it has been suggested that it may be Nathaniel Hone (1718-1784. Hone was born in Dublin and came to England where he practised as an itinerant portrait painter. In 1750, he went to Rome and in 1752 became a member of the Accademia del Disegno in Florence. About this time he met Sir Joshua Reynolds and a feud developed between the two men, culminating in a dispute between Hone and the Royal Academy. He exhibited at the Society of Artists from 1760 to 1768 and in 1769 was a founder member of the Royal Academy and exhibited there from 1769 to 1784. In 1775, he submitted his painting The Conjuror to the Royal Academy where it was seen as a caricature of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Angelica Kauffmann, and was refused by the council of the Academy. A contemporary described him as a 'tall, upright, large man, with a broad-brimmed hat and a lapelled coat buttoned up to his stock'.