The title of this work is deceptive for it is Margaret’s posthumous portrait of friend and colleague, the artist John Passmore. Passmore had been Margaret’s teacher in 1959 when she was a student at the National Art School, and she continued the friendship and reconnected with him at various times throughout her career.

Their extensive correspondence provides an insight into their individual approaches to painting and theories that occupied their waking thoughts. Passmore passed away in 1984 and it is most likely this work was completed in the immediate years after his death. Again, Margaret places a symbolic still life in the foreground of the picture, the figure of Passmore merging into his chair.