The picture was one of forty-five panels which Alma-Tadema's friends painted to decorate the hall of his house, 17 Grove End Road in St John's Wood. They were painted to a uniform size, and each represented the style and subject matter of its creator. That they were regarded with considerable interest is evident from the numerous references to them in books and magazines. F.G. Stephens, in his monograph on Tadema (1895), described them as 'substantial visiting-cards ... charming pictures which fill panels in the unique entrance hall of that delightful house'. Cosmo Monkhouse, in his British Contemporary Artists (1899), referred to them as the house's most remarkable feature', and the Strand Magazine devoted a full fifteen pages to a description of the panels in 1902.