Robert Farrier was born and lived in Chelsea, London and studied at the Royal Academy. He was an engraver early in his career and then a painter of miniature portraits, domestic subjects, scenes from childhood, and schoolday life. Like many genre painters, his work was often done in a humorous manner. He was a man of some imagination; the titles of many of his paintings include quotes which his characters seem to be saying while others were given terse or funny comments in quotes from the artist. Some of his pictures seem to be book illustrations, literally pictures of moments in a character's life. Farrier exhibited at the British Institution, Suffolk Street, the New Watercolor Society, and the Royal Academy between 1818 and 1859. Two of his paintings hang in the National Gallery in London: The Reluctant Scholar and The Parting. His sister, Charlotte, was a miniaturist, and also exhibited at the Royal Academy. A number of his later works, similar to our example, were engraved and published in "Annuals.”