Follower of Marcus Gheeraerts

By descent in the collection of the Dukes of Hamilton and Brandon, Lennoxlove House, since at least 1883;
Whence sold, London, Sotheby's, 30 June 2005, lot 7 (as Scottish School, 18th century), where acquired.

Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy, Works of Old Masters and Scottish National Portraits, 1883, no. 492 (as by an unknown artist; the sitter identified as Lady Catharine Hamilton).

The date of the portrait precludes the sitter either from being identified as Lady Catherine Hamilton (1662-1707), daughter of William Douglas-Hamilton Duke of Hamilton, 1st Earl of Selkirk (1634-94), and Anne Hamilton, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton (1631-1716), or Jane, Lady Cathcart (née Hamilton; d. 1771). The inscription is certainly of a later date to the painting, and the only likely member of the Hamilton family with whom the child could plausibly be identified would be the offspring of James Hamilton, 2nd Marquess of Hamilton (1589-1625), who married Anne, daughter of the 7th Earl of Glencairn, in 1603 (though no such named daughter is recorded). Indeed, the sitter is in all likelihood a young boy, who is still unbreeched.