Rupert Potter (1832-1914), father of the children's writer and illustrator, Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), was a keen amateur photogapher and a close friend of the painter and illustrator, Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896). Rupert would often assist Millais by photographing backgrounds for paintings and sitters for portraits. Beatrix recounted one particularly memorable sitting in July 1884 when her father photographed the former prime minister, William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), for Millais' second portrait of him, completed in 1885: ' Papa has been photographing old Gladstone this morning at Mr. Millais'… They kept off politics of course, and talked about photography. Mr. Gladstone talked of it on a large scale, but not technically. What would it come to, how far would the art be carried, did papa think people would ever be able to photograph in colours?' (Journal, Monday 28th July 1884).

The Millais family lived mostly in London but spent long summer holidays at Annet Lodge near Bowerswell, Perthshire. Here, Millais executed many of his best-known paintings and enjoyed the company of likeminded friends, including the Potters who also spent the summer months in Perthshire, first at Dalguise, then later at Eastwood, a large house on the bank of the Tay in Dunkeld. The notorious and highly successful actress, Lillie Langtry (1853-1929), was also a friend of Millais; his famous portrait of her, A Jersey Lily (1878), was exhibited at the Royal Academy. In September 1879, amid affairs with Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, Prince Louis of Battenberg and the Earl of Shrewsbury, Langtry visited Millais and Potter in Perthshire. Potter took several photographs of Langtry, some in formal poses but most in relaxed conversation with Millais in the garden at Eastwood.