Haynes King was born in Barbados, but left for England when he was 23 to study art at Leigh's in London. He began exhibiting at the Society of British Artists in 1857, and was made a member in 1864. His pictures of cottage life appeared regularly at the Royal Academy and the Glasgow Institute, amongst other venues, and were often favourably compared to rural pictures by Thomas Faed, with whom King lived at one point early in his career.

This picture of a young woman distracted from her work by her wandering thoughts was exhibited in 1871 at the Glasgow Institute, although there is an earlier watercolour version of it dated 1867 in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Taking a moment from the tedium of housework, she gazes away wistfully from her knitting. King's obituary in Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper noted that:

He painted little pictures, crisp and bright of fisher lads and lasses, and cottage scenes. His personality was a striking one. Tall and handsome, his head adorned with rich curly masses of snow-white hair, his presence at once attracted attention.