Background
She was born Mary Balfour in 1817, the daughter of James Balfour Member of Parliament and Lady Eleanor Maitland. They were grandparents of Arthur Balfour 1st Earl Balfour. She grew up in Whittingehame House, East Lothian, Scotland, and travelled widely during her childhood.
Career
She took drawing lessons but had no other formal art education. His family owned the Muckross Estate near Killarney in County Kerry, Ireland, and they moved there to Torc Cottage after their wedding. She loved the Muckross estate as it had always reminded her of her childhood home in Scotland.
She brought a large dowry to the marriage, of £40,000 (equivalent to £325 million in 2016).
The couple were then able to start construction of a large house in 1839, which was finished in 1843, shortly before the Great Famine. The couple had four children, all born abroad between 1839 and 1846.
They were Eleanor, Henry Arthur, Charles, and Blanche. Mary put much effort into raising funds for the famine-stricken inhabitants of the estate, but she lived away from the estate, in England.
She also worked at developing her talents as a watercolour artist, and she displayed considerable skill with practice.
She painted many scenes from the Lakes of Killarney and was recognised as the "..most gifted amateur in the kingdom."(The Times, Friday, August 30, 1861) Queen Victoria visited the estate with the Royal family in 1861 and received several of Mary"s paintings as a parting gift. The house has subsequently become a museum, and the estate, the much-loved Killarney National Park.