Stephen Catterson Smith the Elder (1806-1872)

The sitter was the only daughter and heiress of Conolly Gage, of Bellarena House, Magilligan, co. Londonderry. She married Sir Frederick William Heygate, 2nd Bt., Member of Parliament for co. Londonderry (1859-74) in 1851. Stephen Catterson Smith was the most fashionable portrait painter in Ireland in the mid nineteenth century and the background of this picture is a topographically accurate representation of the landscape around Bellarena house.