She was the daughter of John Gerard Anderson, the head of the Department of Public Instruction, and Edith Sarah Wood.

[1][2] He gave her painting lessons based on the impressionistic style that he learned when he attended the National Gallery School in Melbourne from 1878 until 1886 under G. F.

[9][better source needed] Anderson had to assist Boyd following his return from war because he was gassed in Ypres in 1917 and was left with lasting physical problems.

Here Penleigh Boyd was hired by Sydney Ure Smith as one of the organizers of a major exhibition of contemporary European art.

[3][2] During this separation, Boyd cheated on Anderson by having a brief affair with a Melbourne socialite Minna Schuler, who was the daughter of the editor of The Age.

[3][2] Before Anderson and her children returned to Australia, Penleigh Boyd bought back "The Robins" and purchased a new Hudson car in Sydney in 1923.

[3] Anderson met Boyd at Port Melbourne when the returned on 24 November 1923; however, the couple began to argue immediately.

[9][better source needed] Following her husband's death, she was left with money from his estate (including the profit from the sale of "The Robins", the repaired car, and 40 paintings), a small inheritance from her father, and an annual allowance from Penleigh's father, which allowed her to support her sons without the need to work, even during the Great Depression.

[11] Edith Susan Gerard Anderson attended the Slade School in London in 1905 and also lived in Paris, modeling for the artist Emanuel Phillips Fox.

[2] Nasturtiums is the most well-known piece of artwork that Edith Susan Gerard Anderson modeled for, possibly as early as September 1912.

[1] This painting depicts Anderson wearing a printed mauve dress, black hat and gloves, reading in a garden sitting in a cane chair against a background of nasturtium leaves and flowers going up a trellis.

She modeled for this piece in 1912 in Paris for Emanuel Phillips Fox, shortly after he was elected a member of the International Society of Painters and after returning from spending time painting in Spain and Algeria.