Lowry was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1955, an appointment that brought him a wider recognition in the art world than he had been previously afforded.

In common with Lowry's other oil paintings, Ann was executed using ivory black, vermilion, prussian blue, yellow ochre and flake white with no medium.

Whittet in the August 1958 edition of The Studio as having a "crudely stylised face", but it was not without its supporters; Nesta Ellis, writing for the Sphinx art journal, thought the painting "gave the impression of an impassive yet willful woman".

[citation needed] Ann was never sold at auction, but instead remained the property of the artist until it was bequeathed to Salford Museum and Art Gallery upon his death in 1976.

[2] When Portrait of Ann was included as part of Manchester City Art Gallery's Lowry retrospective in 1959, however, the exhibition catalogue listed the work as being "lent by the sitter" (named on the index of lenders as a 'Miss Ann Helder') although, unlike the other works included at the exhibition, no correspondence appears to exist between the curatorial team and the owner.