[1] The work was inspired by Scottish author Sir Walter Scott's 1819 novel A Legend of Montrose.

[2] Allan M'Aulay Is shown carrying the severed head of his enemy Hector, killed in revenge for the murder of his own uncle.

[3] Scott's novels were popular in France and inspired a number of depictions in music and art.

It follows the fashionable romantic depiction of traditional Scottish Highlanders, which had reached it's climax during George IV's Visit to Edinburgh in 1822.

Today it is in the Wallace Collection in Marylebone, having been acquired in 1851 from a sale by the former French monarch Louis Philippe.