When Gore saw Mary Joanna Kerr, an Edinburgh-born model and dancer, he told his friend ‘that is the girl I am going to marry’. During their courtship, Walter Sickert invited the couple to stay at his art school at Rowlandson House in Hampstead while it was closed for the summer. Here, Gore uses pastel tones and applies his paint with a dry brush. The areas of visible canvas suggest the dappled sunlight breaking through the garden foliage.