Mary Jane Peale studied painting with her uncle Rembrandt Peale, and she began to share the knowledge she gained with her father Rubens in the same year she painted this portrait. Unlike her aunts Anna Claypoole Peale and Sarah Miriam Peale, who enjoyed long professional careers, Mary Jane painted only for her friends and family.

The seventy-one-year-old Rubens had devoted his life to running the Peale museums in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York. But during his final decade, Rubens exhibited the same dedication to art as many of his family members and produced more than 130 canvases. Although many were based on still life pictures by either his uncle James or brother Raphaelle, others were his original designs from nature.