The work was commissioned to mark the grave in Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts, of the brothers Joseph (1841–1886), James and Martin Milmore (1844–1883).

The Milmore brothers immigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1851, Joseph becoming a stone carver and Martin a sculptor.

French's memorial, commissioned in 1889 and dedicated in 1893, depicts the Angel of Death gently taking the hand of a sculptor, or stone carver who is working on a sphinx figure very much like the one the brothers created.

"[4] The architectural setting was initially designed by architect C. Howard Walker, but this was redesigned by French's frequent collaborator Henry Bacon in 1914, and finally replaced in 1945 by one designed the Boston firm of Andrews, Jones Boscoe and Whitmore, at which time the location of the monument was changed.

French and the Milmore family agreed to have four other casts of the piece done, which went to museums in Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and St. Louis.