Frances Hodgkins is one of the New Zealand painters best known to the European art world. She was born in Dunedin, where her father was a noted landscape artist who fostered the talents of his children. Frances began to receive formal artistic training from 1893, and gained awards for her figure drawing and portraiture from the Otago Art Society and New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. By 1900 she had gained skills in landscape and figure painting, and was taking pupils and exhibiting, and had experienced enough success to have confidence in leaving New Zealand in 1901 to further her studies.

Labouring under financial difficulties, Frances Hodgkins nevertheless painted in Europe and Morocco, exhibiting her paintings in London. Although she returned briefly, she left her home country permanently in 1913. She worked in several countries, but spent most of the 1914 - 1918 war years in St Ives, Cornwall, and increasingly established herself in England. She constantly experimented and refreshed her style, and became admired as one of a generation of progressive painters, with a subtle and adventurous use of colour. Her independence, courage, and dedication have been an inspiration to many artists.