John Blake MacDonald was born in Boharm, Ayrshire, Scotland. In 1862 he won the Royal Scottish Academy prize for life painting in Edinburgh. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1866 to 1876. He was elected to the Royal Scottish Academy in 1877 and subequently exhibited 76 works there. His historical subjects were mostly from the Jacobite period. He travelled abroad, notably to Venice, and later dropped figure painting almost entirely to concentrate on landscape painting. Macdonald's work was of a conventional type, and he used dark colours and chiaroscuro effects of Lauder and his pupils.