John Frederick Tayler (1802-89) was born into a wealthy county family, and was educated at both Eton and Harrow, before studying art at the Royal Academy, and then in Paris and Rome. So his background was very different from other watercolour painters. But his career developed along more familiar lines: he became President of the Old Watercolour Society, and exhibited history and sporting subjects, and sometimes genre scenes with a Scottish flavour. In this work, he takes up the popular genre of domestic/historical subject matter.