This work has recently been identified as showing Echo McCulloch of Ardwall near Gatehouse of Fleet, just west of Kirkcudbright (later Mrs Echo Bourne May). It seems to be a variant on the work entitled The Echo, showing a slightly younger child with her hands to her ear and bare legs and feet, which was illustrated in an article on MacGeorge in The Studio in 1915. The artist produced innumerable paintings of children playing in woods and fields, and occasionally by the sea, but this work is unusual in being a portrait of a single child. Echo McCulloch’s parents must, presumably, have commissioned it after learning of The Echo itself. MacGeorge studied at the Antwerp Academy under Charles Verlat, accompanying Hornel at the latter’s behest; though junior, Hornel was an important influence on MacGeorge. However, it is ultimately the style and spirit of Renoir’s landscapes and portraits of the 1880s that have shaped this scene.

William Stewart MacGeorge RSA, 1861-1931

Born in Castle Douglas, MacGeorge studied at Edinburgh School of Art, the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp and the Royal Scottish Academy's Life Class. He was a member of the Kirkcudbright School, a small group of Galloway painters led by E.A. Hornel, and Hornel encouraged him to adopt a more decorative style with greater use of impasto and bolder colour. MacGeorge is remembered for his paintings of children playing in woodland. He also executed landscapes, portraits and figurative subjects based on the ballads of Galloway and the Borders.