Roberts described this portrait as an ‘opus of “The Chief” aged 80 with no sign of mental fatigue, military type, in mind and physique. I got along first rate with him disagreeing at nearly every point …’

Edward Ogilvie (1814–96) was a wealthy pastoralist. Born in England, he emigrated to Australia, arriving in Sydney in 1825 aboard the convict ship Grenada, on which he and his family had free passage. In 1840 he and his brother Edward took up 90 square kilometres of land on both sides of the Clarence, which they later named the Yulgilbar. Oglivie travelled widely in Europe, enjoying its art, architecture and history, and spent time in Florence where he purchased the late seventeenth-century leaf frame in which this portrait sits.