Skipworth was the son of a Lincolnshire farmer. He studied first under ER Taylor, and from 1879 spent three years at the South Kensington Schools ‘going on to Julien’s for six months “to finish” with the result that his art was revolutionised and began again with a better technique .… His colour scheme is soft and charming; he is fond of faint fawns and pale pinks, painting pretty women prettily’ (R Jope-Slade, ‘Outsiders – Some Eminent Artists of the Day: Not members of the Royal Academy’, ‘Black and White’ Handbook to the Royal Academy and New Gallery Pictures, 1893). Our painting was probably one of ‘two pretty studies of heads’ exhibited at the New Gallery in 1901.