This picture was exhibited with the quotation: 'She sees no kind domestic visage here'. The position of governess was one of the few professions open to middle-class women of modest means, but it was often a lonely and difficult life because the social status of a governess was ambiguous. She was not a servant in the usual sense but nor was she on equal terms with the family who employed her. Here, the young woman holds a letter which has obviously stirred memories of home. It may be news of a death in her family - letters or cards with black borders were used to announce deaths. Redgrave had a personal interest in representing the life of a governess: his sister Jane was a governess and died young.

Redgrave painted an earlier version of this subject, The Poor Teacher, in 1843. this version was painted the following year, and altered at the request of the buyer, John Sheepshanks. In order to make the picture more cheerful, Redgrave added the scene of children (the governess's pupils) playing in the sunlit garden.