Mary Forster was the daughter of the Wiltshire landscape painter T B W Foster. She exhibited at the the Royal Academy in 1876 and 1878 and sent a number of drawing to the Dudey Gallery. In 1884 she was elected one of the youngest associate members of the Royal Watercolour Society and married Samuel Lofthouse, a barrister. She died shortly afterwards. 

The picture was given to George Price Boyce and his wife Augustine Aimee Boyce and depicts their pet parrot in their house in Glebe Place, Chelsea. West House, Glebe Place was built for Boyce by the architect Philip Webb. Boyce lived there from 1870 until his death in 1897.