Solomon creates impact by employing the portrait format to depict his eight-year-old daughter, Mary, splendidly attired in scarlet coat and tricorne hat, seated on her pony 'Kettle'. A gifted portraitist and great family man, Solomon often used his family as models and Mary was a particular favourite.

Solomon J. Solomon was born in London and studied at Heatherley’s Art School, the Royal Academy Schools and the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. He showed his first painting at the Royal Academy in 1881 and was a founder-member of the Society of Portrait Painters a decade later. In 1906 he became only the second Jewish painter to be elected a Royal Academician. He was President of the Ben Uri between 1924 and 1926. During the First World War Solomon pioneered important camouflage techniques for concealing guns from the air, as well as netting and paint schemes for tank protection.