Emma Fordyce MacRae was born in Vienna, Austria, but moved to the United States as a child. Her love for art started at an early age and can be credited largely to her parents’ collection of paintings from European artists. Throughout her life, she frequently returned to Europe to study the latest trends in European art. In 1935 MacRae became a regular in the Philadelphia Ten, a unique and progressive group of women painters and sculptors who broke the rules of society and the art world by working and exhibiting together.
The iconic St. Peter’s Church has been the parish church of St. George’s for over 400 years and is the oldest Anglican Church outside the British Isles. It is thought that Macrae stayed in St. George’s when she visited Bermuda in 1952, as the Old Town is her only subject matter.