The book explores the National Gallery of Scotland's world famous portrait "The Honourable Mrs Graham" by Thomas Gainsborough, one of the finest and most sensitive British portrait painters of the 18th century. An exquisite society beauty, Mrs Graham (1757-1792) sat to Gainsborough for at least three portraits. Following her tragically early death from tuberculosis, her husband, later Lord Lynedoch, was so grief-stricken that he had the portrait stored in a London warehouse. It was not until after his death, more than 40 years later, that an heir rediscovered the painting and bequeathed it to the Scottish nation on the condition that it never left Edinburgh. "Gainsborough's Beautiful Mrs Graham" comprehensively explores the personal, social and historical context of the painting and goes on to examine the afterlife of a picture whose popularity has generated a whole industry of souvenir production.