[4][failed verification] Emanuel Phillips Fox was an Australian painter living in Paris at the time that he produced this and several other paintings that depict the artist's wife and friends in the context of Parisian domesticity during the Belle Époque.

[7] Anderson and her future husband, Penleigh Boyd, were close friends of the artist who "was attracted by her rich auburn hair and grey-green eyes—both fashionable at the time.

"[10] At the time, in spite of the fact that portraiture was popular and likeness to the subject valued in the salons, artists were showing a growing interest in the formal aspects of the work and they had begun to name their paintings after their aesthetic elements.

In spite of these formal and decorative intentions, the painting is one in which "the artist illustrated the elegance of the Belle Époque and the sunny pastimes of the bourgeoisie".

[13] In paintings of the time, women reading were often placed in an outdoor setting where gardens, foliage and the effects of the light were part of the subject matter.

[1] The uncharacteristic "dampening down of atmosphere and light" has been attributed to the weather in Paris at the time – which according to Fox's friend Rupert Bunny was very cold and wet.

[1] Various elements of the painting, including "the lack of perspective" which gives "an impression of a flat space, invaded by motifs: the leaves on the trellis, the red touches provided by the flowers, the white dots on the dress, the weaving on the wicker chair" are described as "all corresponding to a very pleasing Japanese aesthetics which recalls Vuillard.