John Warrington Wood (1839-1886) was born and studied in England, but spent much of his working life in Rome. Wood began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1868 with four works he sent from Rome. In 1875 he began an important series of commissions for Sir Andrew Barclay, to be installed on the façade of the newly established Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. In 1877 Warrington Wood received the highest honour which could be conferred upon an artist in Rome when he was elected a member of the ancient and famous Guild of St Luke, an academy founded in 1593. Such membership was seldom granted to British sculptors working in Rome and in the case of Warrington Wood it was recognition of how high his work was regarded there. The fact that his sympathies lay with contemporary Italian sculptors rather than with his British compatriots may explain why he was never to receive the same recognition at the Royal Academy, despite often exhibiting there during his career.
The present figure of Rebecca dates from around 1877 when it was first mentioned in sources. Warrington Wood specialised particularly in Biblical subjects, using them for enchanting studies of his ideal of feminine beauty, chosen for their sentimental appeal, rather than religious meaning. Rebecca not only shows the pervading influence of classicism in his work, but also that of contemporary sentimentalism in the detailing of the drapery and jewellery.