Melbourne born artist and teacher, Jack Kilgour, studied at the Sydney Art School. In 1931, after his marriage to fellow art student Nancy Davidson, the Kilgours left for London where Jack, with William Dobell and Frederick H Coventry, became the centre of a group of expatriate Australian artists. The Kilgours returned to Sydney in 1939.

Kilgour has chosen a popular subject with this intimate portrait of Nancy shown relaxed and absorbed reading a book. An accomplished artist who exhibited jointly with her husband, Nancy was also a short-story writer who wrote under the pseudonym, Julia Barrett.