Thomas Armstrong (1832-1911) undertook his early training as a painter in Paris. While studying at the studio of Ary Scheffer, he spent the evenings at the famous Académie Suisse. In 1854 he also spent time in the artists' colony at Barbizon, where he made the acquaintance of Millet. After a brief period of study in Antwerp, Armstrong returned to Paris where he began life-long friendships with George Du Maurier, Edward John Poynter and James Whistler. In 1860 he returned to London where he continued to work as a painter until 1881 when he was appointed Director of the Art Division of the Department of Science and Art, based at the South Kensington Museum. This role gave him responsibility for the organisation and supervision of art education throughout Britain.

This painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1869 and is typical of the work produced by Armstrong in the 1860's. His early work focused on themes of social deprivation but in 1860 he joined the circle of painters associated with the emergent Aesthetic Movement. Like artists such as Myles Birkett Foster, Armstrong here romanticises rural life and the female agricultural labourer to create a harmonious figurative picture. His languid beauties invoke a Classical and 'Aesthetic' ideal - the three Graces perhaps - disposed in a frieze-like composition, and dressed in Greek-style costumes with ribbon-bound hair. The colours and the mood of the picture are close to Pre-Raphaelite painting, and the women themselves recall the figures in the pseudo-classical fantasies of Albert Moore or Alma-Tadema.