Harrington Mann studied at the Slade School under Legros and was awarded a Slade Travelling Studentship in 1887, allowing him to travel to Italy, Algeria and Spain. He also studied at the Académie Julien in Paris, under Boulanger and Lefebvre. In 1889, he exhibited over 60 of his sketches from his travels at T. Lawrie & Sons Galleries in Glasgow, before moving to London in 1900, where he became a successful portrait painter and wrote a book on the subject. He also opened a studio in New York.

His early work is particularly fresh and vivid, especially when it is on panel and on this scale. Our study of an Italian Girl was exhibited at the 1888 International Exhibition of Science, Art & Industry in Glasgow.