Beatrice Huntington (1889-1988) was a celebrated protrait painter in the 1920s and 30s. She grew up in St Andrews and trained in Paris, Munich and London (and studied the cello in Leipzig). She moved to Dundee after WWI to study under the painter William Macdonald whom she married in 1925. They moved to a flat on Hanover Street, Edinburgh in 1929 and lived there for the rest of their lives. They travelled extensively throughout Europe, particularly in Spain which is reflected in the subject of this twenties painting ‘A Muleteer from Andalucia’. Alice Strang, editor of Modern Scottish Women writes ‘It comes from a series of works which reveal an awareness of Cubism’ presumably from her training in Paris. ‘The faceted handling of the sitter’s face and the overall austerity of design, seen in the plain background and the flattened depiction of the hat and jacket, illustrate Huntington’s declaration that “simplification is not omitting, it is containing and that comes with knowledge and hard work.”‘