Marie Spartali Stillman regularly exhibited both at the Royal Academy of Arts and at the Grosvenor Gallery in London, a radical alternative to the Academy founded in 1877. Her works also were shown at important American venues in Washington, DC; Philadelphia; and Boston. Stillman’s most important artistic influences were her teacher, Ford Maddox Brown, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Stillman’s attention to detail in this watercolor and its languid mood typify the Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic, as do the model’s auburn hair and medieval-looking costume.