Margaret Quaine
Margaret Quaine was accused of witchcraft and executed with her son in 1617. Women who did not conform with society’s expectations were targeted especially during the reign of King James I. As a farmer’s wife living on the Isle of Man, there are no records of Quaine’s appearance, so Sokhanvari has chosen to depict Quaine with a degree of anonymity, viewed in profile with her face mostly obscured.

Sokhanvari began with the interior scenes of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer as a starting point for her composition and peppered the portrait with props that speak to Quaine’s story. The beetroot, for example, is a reference to her skill with crops that led rival neighbours to accuse her of witchcraft. In her right hand, Quaine holds a silver needle to signal the possible experimental nature of her crop manipulation as a scientist.

Quaine’s portrait is displayed among examples from the National Portrait Gallery’s collection of miniatures that date to around the same period and later.