Thomas Francis Dicksee was an English painter, primarily a portraitist and painter of historical, genre subjects — often from Shakespeare. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1841 until the year of his death. His brother John Robert Dicksee was also a painter, and his children, Frank and Margaret likewise became painters. In The Dictionary of Victorian Painters, Herbert Dicksee is given as his son also, but according to the City of London School, where Herbert taught, he was the son of John Robert Dicksee.
In December 1895, at the age of 46, Waterhouse was finally elected as full Academician at the Royal Academy of Arts. Through his paintings, he had become quite popular in London society although there have always been critics who disliked his style. He was considered one of the most influential modern painters in England, together with Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Frank Dicksee and Frederic Leighton.
The portrayed Phyllis is the younger daughter of the president of the Royal Watercolour Society: Sir Ernest Albert Waterlow. He and Waterhouse shared a studio on Primrose Hill.
