Woman Reading (Nude Verso)

The subject of this portrait is Agnes Miller Parker, McCance's first wife, and it was painted in 1922. Although born in Cambuslang, McCance came from an Ayrshire family and it was to Girvan that he retired in 1963.  For much of his career, however, he lived south of the border, moving to London in 1919 with his new wife Agnes Miller Parker, who came from Irvine, Ayrshire.  Parker was herself an artist, favouring the medium of wood engraving in which she enjoyed a successful career in book and advert illustration.  Parker And McCance later separated and she returned to Ayrshire, settling on Arran.