Alexander Rossi was born in Corfu in 1840 and moved to England in 1866. Like many other Victorian painters, he specialized in narrative genre scenes starring children and young women. These paintings, entitled 'The Little Lovers' and 'Forbidden Books', were regularly seen in the Royal Academy's exhibitions between 1870 and 1903. Rossi owed his success mainly to his careful elaboration of details, complex compositions and the use of deep, intense colours.