Her sister Lilian Stannard (1877–1944) was a successful artist of watercolours specialising in garden paintings who exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1902 to 1930.
She had already had local success, with a watercolour inspired by her enthusiasm for the Bedfordshire countryside winning first prize for amateurs at the 1893 Bedford Art Exhibition.
[1] Aged twenty four years Emily Stannard contracted tuberculosis, a severe illness that stopped her fledgling career.
The nature of the illness led to long periods of physical inactivity that considerably restricted her artistic output for her remaining years.
The painting was described thus ....An extremely pretty river scene, with a summery foreground, and a distance beautifully broken by elms and willows ...[11] Stannard was described by her biographer Anthony J.Lester as able .... to capture the beauty and solitude of the Bedfordshire brooks and her ability in transmitting onto paper the glimmering rays of sunlight upon the leaves of elms and willows is quite remarkable .....[12] Two examples of her work Bromham Bridge and Mill and Newnham Bridge are on display in her home town at the Old Town Hall, Bedford.