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Louise Barton was the widow of merchant, Richard Barton, from Cabourg in the Basse-Normandie region of France, who supported herself as a potraitist after his death. In 1660, she was hired by Kristin Gilles to execute a portrait of her protege, Duncan MacLeod, so that she could "gaze upon it forever."
During their weeks together, Louise and MacLeod fell in love, and she lingered over the painting, not only to prolong their time together but because she was never completely happy with the light. Kristin believed she had captured the subject beautifully, "but he should look a bit happier." To which Louise replied, "I cannot paint what is not there, madame, perhaps he has little to be happy about." When MacLeod confronted Louise about their feelings for one another, she asked if he loved Kristin. "How could I?" he replied, "When I love you."
MacLeod and Louise Barton
The overly possessive Kristin, however, did not share her toys. When MacLeod was elsewhere, she murdered Louise, drowning her in a pond. Kristin, of course, denied the murder, and MacLeod could prove nothing, but 330 years later, Methos, speaking to MacLeod, insisted, "You know she killed Louise Barton, because you know what kind of woman she is...."