The sitter, the sixth daughter of John, 2nd Earl of Hopetoun and his third wife Lady Elizabeth Leslie, daughter of Alexander, 5th Earl of Leven and Melville, married her cousin Charles Hope (1763-1851) on 8 August 1793. He was a lawyer, politician and accomplished public speaker whose voice, according to Lord Cockburn, 'was surpassed by that of the great Mrs. Siddons alone'. He was appointed a Lord of the Session and Lord Justice Clerk as Lord Granton in 1804. In 1811 he became Lord President of the Court of Session, a post that also included that of Lord Justice General from 1836. The couple had four sons and eight daughters. The eldest son, John, became Lord Justice Clerk of Scotland, and the second, Charles, became a Rear Admiral and A.D.C. to Queen Victoria.
This portrait was painted in 1811. A portrait of her husband of larger format at Hopetoun was also included in the 1876 Raeburn exhibition. This was painted in 1809, as a receipt at Hopetoun establishes.